
Class L 5 /(TO f 



Book 



Copyrights?. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT, 



The Catholic University Pedagogical Series 



VOLUME III 

TEACHERS MANUAL OF 
PRIMARY METHODS 



THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY 
PEDAGOGICAL SERIES 

Will include text-books, teachers manuals, and popular 
treatises on the various aspects of Catholic Education 

NOW READY 
Vol. I. The Making and the Unmaking of a Dullard 

By Thomas Edward Shields 

Vol. II. The Education of Our Girls 

By Thomas Edward Shields 

Vol. III. Teachers Manual of Primary Methods 

By Thomas Edward Shields 

IN PREPARATION 
Vol. IV. The Education of the Laity in the 

Middle Ages By Patrick J. McCormick 

Vol. V. Elements of the History of Education 

By Patrick J. McCormick 

Vol. VI. Education in Ancient Times 

By William Turner 

Vol. VII. The Philosophy of Education 

By Thomas Edward Shields 

Vol. VIII. The Psychology of Education 

By Thomas Edward Shields 

Vol. IX. The Science and Art of Study 

By Thomas Edward Shields 

Vol. X. Education in Medieval Times 

By Patrick J. McCormick 

Vol. XL Education in Modern Times 

By Edward A. Pace 



Teachers Manual of 
Primary Methods 



By 
Thomas Edward Shields, Ph. D., LL. D. 

Professor of Psychology and Education 

in 

The Catholic University of America 



WASHINGTON. D. C. 
THE CATHOLIC EDUCATION PRESS 

1912 



iJmprtmatut 



^ 



v?V 



►& JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS 

Archbishop of Baltimore 



Copyright, 1912, By T. E. Shields 



gCI.A3U>358 



Sir the Alumnae irf the 
Sisters College 

of the 

dathfllu: Mnf uerstty tA Amerfta 

Whose joy it is to spend them- 
selves in bringing to the children 
of this generation the blessed 
privilege of hearing from the lips 
of the Master the gracious 
invitation, "Suffer the little 
children to come unto me, and 
forbid them not; for of such is 
the kingdom of God" 

Ihls bank 
is loumgly fcfcfcatefr 



PREFACE 

The social and economic changes of the last few dec- 
ades have weakened the home and placed a new burden 
upon the school. In the industrial home of the past the 
child received a sensory-motor training which formed 
the basis of his education. The school was called upon 
to add the formal elements only. In the olden days the 
child was called upon to contribute through his industry 
in many home occupations to the support of the family ; 
to-day, he is deprived, for the most part, of the oppor- 
tunity to grow in usefulness and independence. The 
school must meet these new needs of the children: and 
the burden in this respect falls heaviest on the primary 
grades. The food material for the minds and hearts of 
the children that was formerly supplied by the home 
must now be furnished in the school. Old methods no 
longer suffice. The scientific achievements which have 
so profoundly changed the adult world must also be 
made to furnish forth the means whereby the school will 
be enabled to adjust the child to his new environment. 

It is a mistake to suppose that the teacher is the only 
factor in the educative process affected by these changes. 
Her methods must be transformed so as to meet the 
present needs, but it is still more important that the 
text-book which is placed in the hands of the children 
should conform strictly to the same requirements of 
method. The teacher should be able to look to the text^ 
book for the proper sequence in the materials to be 
presented no less than for the proper method of pre- 



8 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PKIMAKY METHODS 

senting each new truth. During the past few decades 
much has been written and said concerning primary 
methods, but little of this found expression in primary 
text-books. The teachers in our Catholic schools through- 
out the land frequently complain of the quality of the 
text-books which they are obliged to use. It has often 
been pointed out that whereas purely secular subjects 
were presented in attractive form, the truths of religion 
were reduced to unintelligible theological formulae and 
presented to the children in the unattractive garb of the 
catechism. 

When, a few years ago, the Department of Education 
was established in the Catholic University, it was felt 
by those placed in charge of it that the most important 
work which it should undertake was a revision of primary 
text-books so as to render them both scientific and Catho- 
lic, and a revision of primary methods which would 
render our work fruitful in placing religion in the heart 
of the curriculum and in giving to it the preponderating 
influence which it should have in the developing minds 
and hearts of Catholic children. 

The Catholic Education Series of primary text-books 
was first undertaken. The first four volumes of this 
series have already been issued. The remaining volumes 
are in preparation. To derive the full benefit from the 
use of these books the teachers have felt the need of a 
manual of method which would set forth the principles 
of method involved and the aims which the authors of 
these primary text-books sought to attain. The present 
volume is an answer to requests frequently expressed 
by the primary teachers who have been using the Catho- 
lic Education Series with good results, but who feel that 



PREFACE 9 

much more might be achieved through a better under- 
standing of the methods involved. 

In the preparation of this manual it has seemed best 
not to confine the text to the rules of method. A dis- 
cussion, more or less lengthy, of the principles involved 
it is believed will prove helpful to the teacher. Use was 
freely made, consequently, of material previously pub- 
lished elsewhere. 

Our grateful achnowledgments are due to Kev. P. J. 
McCormick for permission to make use of extracts from 
his article on The Building of the Child's Vocabulary, 
and to Miss Dunlap and Sister Ignatia, Saint-Mary-of- 
the- Woods, Vigo County, Indiana, for the dramatic 
sketches which they wrote in illustration of our method. 
Our thanks are especially due to Sister Ignatia for her 
work in preparing the blackboard and chart material 
which is suggested for the preliminary work of the first 
grade. 

Thomas Edward Shields. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAETI 

Beginnings 

chapter I 

The Adjustment of the Child to His School Environment 

Preparation for First Grade 22 

Children from the Kindergarten 23 

Children from Preliminary Grade 24 

Children withont Previous School Experience. _ 24 

Method of Adjustment 25 

From Home to School.. 27 

Visiting 28 

Gifts 28 

School Possessions 29 

Love 30 

Authority 30 

Eeligion 31 

chapter n 

The Adjustment of the Child to His Physical Environ- 
ment 

Mental Continuity 33 

Health 34 

Sensory-Motor Training 34 

Action Drills 35 

Action Games 35 

Ehythmic Work 35 

Busy Work 36 



12 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

CHAPTER III 

Teaching the Children to Co-operate 

The Functions of Play 37 

Motor Expression 38 

Joyousness 39 

CHAPTER IV 

The Imparting of Suitable Thought Material 

Story Telling 41 

Correlation 42 

chapter v 

The Child's Spoken Vocabulary 

Home Preparation 43 

Correcting Errors 44 

Enlarging the Spoken Vocabulary 45 

CHAPTER VI 

The Child's Written Vocabulary 

The Word and the Thought . 47 

From Script to Print 48 

The Child's First Book 49 

CHAPTER VII 

The Child's First Day in School 

Program for the First Day 52 

Introduction by the Principal 53 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 13 



Program for the First Day — continued. 

Greeting Game 56 

Assignment of Places 57 

Story 60 

Sleeping Game and Surprise 60 

Seat Work 61 

Concert Eecitation 63 

Good-bye Song 63 

Prayer, etc. 64 

Afternoon Program 64 

CHAPTEK VIII 

Sense Training in the First Grade 

The Milkweed Lesson 68 

A Fruit Lesson 70 

Sense Training 70 

Assimilation 71 

Imagination 71 

Eesults 72 

Sensory-Motor Drills 74 

Drawing 75 

PART II 

Primaey Text-books 

chapter IX 

Teacher and Text-book 

Selection of the Text-book 78 

Knowledge of the Text-book 80 



14 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMABY METHODS 

Knowledge of the Text-book — continued. 

Correct Use of Text-book 80 

Unity of Method 81 

Eemedying Defects 83 

chaptee x 

Functions of Primary Text-books 

Thought Material 84 

Form 86 

Sequence 87 

Germinal Truths 87 

Time 88 

Word Selection 88 

Fundamental Truths 89 

A Histological Analogy 89 

Principle Involved 91 

Transition Stages 91 

Correlation 93 

Name of First Book 94 

The Principle of Correlation r 95 

Curriculum 96 

Eeligion and Secular Knowledge 97 

Exclusion of Religion 98 

Segregation of Religion 100 

Religion and Other School Subjects 101 

Instinctive Basis 104 

Transforming Instincts 105 

Five-fold Social Inheritance 105 

Vocabulary Building 107 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 15 

PAET III 

The Catholic Education Sebies of Pbimaby Text-books 

chapteb xi 

Religion, First Book 

Part I, Love _ 114 

Nature Study 114 

Domestic Study 115 

Eeligious Lesson 115 

Songs 118 

Part II, Nutrition 119 

Part III, Protection from Danger 120 

Part IV, Eemedy 120 

Part V, Models for Imitation 121 

CHAPTEB XII 

Religion, Second Book 

Part I, The Eeward of Obedience 124 

Nature Study, a, b, c, d, e 124 

Domestic Study, a, b, c 130 

Eeligious Lesson, a, b, c, d, e, f 131 

Part II, The First End of Obedience— Private Wor- 
ship 134 

Nature Study, a, b, c, d, e 134 

Domestic Study, a 138 

Eeligious Lesson 139 

Part III, The Second End of Obedience— Public 

Worship 139 



16 TEACHEKS MANUAL OP PRIMARY METHODS 

Part IV, God's Law is for Our Good 141 

Nature Study 141 

Domestic Study . 141 

Eeligious Lesson 142 

Part V, Perfect Obedience 143 

Nature Study, a 143 

Domestic Study 144 

Eeligious Lesson . 144 

Part VI, The Disobedience of Our First Parents 145 

Nature Study : 145 

Domestic Study 145 

Eeligious Lesson 146 

Part VII, Eedemption 146 

The Water Lily and the Minnow 146 

The Way to Heaven 147 

CHAPTER XIII 

Religion, Third Book 

Part I, The Church >— 151 

Faith, Hope and Charity 153 

The Ark, the Flood, and the Eainbow :— 153 

The Call of Abraham___ 154 

Joseph is Betrayed by His Brothers 154 

Part II, Sacrifice 156 

Early Sacrifices 156 

Abraham's Obedience 157 

The Paschal Lamb 157 

The Lamb of God 157 

The New Commandment 158 

Jesus Prays in the Garden 158 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 17 

Part III, The Holy Eucharist 158 

Part IV, God With Us 159 

Across the Red Sea 160 

Mount Sinai 160 

The Building of the Tabernacle 160 

Sacrifices in the Tabernacle 160 

The Temple 161 

The Upper Eoom 162 

The First Christians 162 

The Catacombs 162 

CHAPTER XIV 

Third Reader 

Part I, Conscience 166 

The Coward and His Wife 166 

Lessons for Life 168 

Bird Thoughts 169 

The Pea Blossom 170 

The Magic King. 170 

To Whom Shall We Give Thanks? 171 

The Camel 171 

The Meeting in the Desert 172 

Part II, Courage 173 

The Owl and the Pussy Cat 173 

The Ugly Duckling 174 

The Little Hero of Haarlem 176 

Moses in the Bulrushes 177 

William Tell 178 

Queen Esther 179 



18 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PBIMAKY METHODS 

Part III, God and Neighbor 179 

Daniel 180 

St. Peter 180 

The Christian Slave 180 

PAET IV 

Thought and Language 

chaptee xv 
Method of Thought Development 

Memory 185 

Eepetition '. 185 

Memorizing Forms 186 

Memorizing the Catechism : 187 

Memorizing Thought 188 

The Shepherd Idea 189 

The Mother Idea 190 

Derivative Attitudes 191 

Development of Details 192 

The Idea of Sin 193 

Motor Tendencies 193 

Inhibition 194 

Germinal Thought '. 195 

First Phase of Development 195 

Final Stage of Development 196 

Correlation 196 

Heredity 197 

Supplementary Work 198 

Aim 199 

Qualities of the Text-book 199 

The Author 199 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 19 

Supplementary Work — continued. 

The Teacher 201 

Oral Work 201 

The Fairy Tale 202 

Supplementary Eeading 203 

Dramatizing 204 

Play and Work 205 

For Physical Culture 205 

Building a Nest 206 

For Emotional Culture 206 

A Welcome to Jesus 207 

June Time 208 

The Bescue 209 

The Storm at Sea 209 

The Child His Own Dramatist 210 

Silver Brook 211 

CHAPTER XVI 

Defective Methods in Primary Reading 

Changed Conditions 217 

Unity of Method . 218 

Eeaders 219 

Word Consciousness 221 

The Alphabet Method 224 

The Phonic Method 225 

The Word Method 226 

CHAPTER XVII 

The Context Method of Reading 

Wrong Methods ; 231 

Eemedies 236 



20 TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PEIMABY METHODS 

Aim in Primary Beading 239 

Protest From Secondary Schools 241 

Silent Beading 242 

Preparing Text-books 243 

CHAPTEB XVIII 

Teaching the Child to Spell 

The Oral Method 246 

Function of Written Word 248 

Spelling Book 249 

The Blackboard 250 

Visualizing , 251 

The Text-book 254 

Classifying the Children 255 

Spelling Drills 256 

CHAPTEB XIX 

Preparation for the Child's First Reader 260 

CHAPTEB XX 

Modified Word List for First Book 269 

CHAPTEB XXI 

Word List for First Book 275 

CHAPTEB XXII 

Word List for Second Book 294 



PART I 

BEGINNINGS 

The teacher of the first primary grade occupies a very 
difficult position and one that requires many qualifica- 
tions for the successful discharge of the duties which 
it imposes. She must have the heart of a mother and 
mother-love must go out from her so generously that 
the little ones may forget for the time being that they 
are not in their own homes. She must have infinite 
patience and a mind that is capable of discerning great 
things in little beginnings. She must not expect to find 
old heads on young shoulders, but must perseveringly 
plant in the fertile soil of the child's mind and heart the 
seeds of Christian virtue, many of which will not reach 
maturity or bear fruit until the years of adult life have 
been reached. She must have a definite view of the things 
that are to be accomplished during the first days in 
school and she must not yield to the temptation, as some 
fond mothers do, of neglecting the present while she 
dreams of the great things that the children will one day 
achieve. 

St. Francis de Sales, writing to an over-ardent soul, 
gives advice which every primary teacher might well 
take to heart. He says: "It is necessary, in order to 
travel well, for us to attend to the accomplishment of 
that part of the journey which is immediately before us, 
to get over the first day's ground, and not amuse our- 
selves with desiring to accomplish the last day's journey 
when our business is to make an end of the first." 



CHAPTER I 

THE ADJUSTMENT OF THE CHILD TO THE 
SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT 

The child passes with ease from room to room or from 
grade to grade; the changes of environment which he 
meets in the ordinary school promotion are not sufficient 
to present any serious difficulty. But the case is usually 
otherwise with the children who enter the first grade. 
Some of them, and at times a large majority of them, 
have little or no experience outside of the home. In 
the cities, of course, they have seen people passing in 
the street and they have probably had neighboring chil- 
dren as playmates, but they are wholly unaccustomed 
to take their places in the ranks of the ordered numbers 
that make up a school population, nor are they accus- 
tomed to submit to other authority than that exercised 
by their parents or some other member of the home 
group under the direct supervision of the parents. To 
transfer the child from the home to the school without 
shock is the first problem to be encountered by the 
teacher of the first grade; it is a problem which pre- 
sents many grave difficulties and upon its successful 
solution the child 's welfare and his progress intellectually 
and morally depend to a much larger extent than is com- 
monly recognized. 

Preparation foe the First Grade 

Children applying for admission to the first grade 
may be divided into three groups, in the first of which 
are found those who have attended kindergarten, in the 



ADJUSTMENT TO SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT 23 

second those who have been trained in a preliminary 
grade, and in the third those who come directly from 
home without any previous school experience. 

Children from the Kindergarten. The advantages of a 
good kindergarten training are obvious. It accustoms the 
children to be away from home for several hours each 
day, and it familiarizes them with the school building 
and its appurtenances as well as with teachers and play- 
mates. It thus helps in no small measure to bridge over 
the chasm which would otherwise exist for the child be- 
tween the home and the school. In a well-conducted kin- 
dergarten the social side of the child's nature is devel- 
oped to some extent. The children are taught to co- 
operate in many ways : they learn to sing together and to 
move and act in groups; they learn to measure their 
actions and the expenditure of their energy by external 
standards ; they co-operate at times in the attainment 
of common objects and in the performance of simple 
social functions ; their spoken vocabulary is enlarged and 
perfected; and, what is in the judgment of many edu- 
cators the most conspicuous advantage of kindergarten 
training, they learn to use their muscles to some purpose 
and to co-ordinate the activities of eye and hand in the 
performance of many actions and in the construction of 
many simple objects. 

But however desirable the kindergarten may be, we 
must reconcile ourselves to the fact that it is at present 
beyond the reach of multitudes of our children, and these 
unfortunate little ones must be dealt with in the first 
grade. Private kindergartens conducted without refer- 
ence to the work of the school, while they may amuse 
the children, are believed by many to be a detriment 



24 TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PBIMABY METHODS 

rather than a help, since they omit the central feature 
of the work, namely, the adjusting of the pupil to his 
school environment. However, it is obvious that the 
absence of a proper kindergarten training increases the 
work to be done in the first grade and in many ways 
renders the task of the teacher more difficult. It should 
be added, however, that the presence of even half a dozen 
well-trained kindergarten children in this grade suffices 
to supply suitable leadership to the others. This will 
materially lighten the task of the teacher, especially dur- 
ing the first weeks of the school year. 

Children from Preliminary Grade. The second group 
of children who enter the primary grade are those who 
have had a year 's preliminary training. In parts of New 
England where it is still customary to count nine grades 
in the elementary school, this preliminary year is known 
as the first grade and the children are admitted to it at 
the age of five. What is elsewhere known as the first 
grade corresponds to the second grade of these schools. 
In St. Paul, where the kindergarten system prevails, 
there are only eight grades and the children admitted 
to the first grade are supposed to be six years of age 
and to have passed through the kindergarten. In Minne- 
apolis, similarly, there are only eight grades. There is 
no kindergarten, but children five years old are admitted 
to a preliminary grade known as B. First. 

Children Without Previous School Experience. The 
children of the third group enter the first grade at the 
age of six years without having had the advantage of a 
training either in a kindergarten or in a preliminary 
grade. These children have the maturity characteristic 
of their years. They have usually received less formal 



ADJUSTMENT TO SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT 25 

training than the children in the previous groups but their 
individuality and initiative are likely to be more pro- 
nounced. They are more timid, however, in their new 
surroundings, less capable of expressing themselves be- 
fore strangers ; and they have usually a less varied mental 
content than the children of the same age who have had a 
year's training in school. It must not be supposed, how- 
ever, that the development of these children was arrested 
during the year in which their companions attended school. 
What they have learned at home and on the streets they 
have learned intensely and their minds will frequently be 
found to possess the native vigor of unmolested growth, 
which will show to good advantage after the transition 
from home to school has been successfully made. Their 
apperception masses may be more limited in scope but 
they are usually more fecund. 

Method of Adjustment 

If the children applying for admittance to the first 
grade room belonged exclusively to any one of these 
three groups, we could shape the first work of the grade 
with direct reference to their condition. But, since it is 
usual to have the three groups represented in the first 
grade, it will be necessary for the teacher so to adjust 
her methods and her work that the needs of all the chil- 
dren may be met. Where this is neglected, the phenomenon 
of retardation will manifest itself in the room and at the 
end of the year a greater or less number of children will 
have failed to reach the stage of development requisite 
for promotion to the second grade. Experience also 
shows the unwisdom of segregating these three groups 



26 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

and dealing with them separately in the first grade work. 
JWe must allow the children to be helpful to each other. 
The members of each group have something to learn 
from the members of the other groups, and the tactful 
teacher will here avail herself to the full of the benefits 
to be derived from the play of the imitative instinct. The 
children having a year's preliminary school experience 
might be able to use a text-book from the very first day in 
the primary room. But the children without such ex- 
perience would be retarded by this procedure. The wise 
teacher will, accordingly, avoid the use of a book for a 
time and will supply the needs of all the pupils through 
the use of blackboard and chart until such time as they 
are ready to use their first book. The length of this 
preliminary period in which no book is used will naturally 
vary in accordance with the needs of the children. Where 
the great majority of the children have had a preliminary 
year in school, five or six weeks will be sufficient time in 
which to prepare the class for their first book. But where 
the balance is the other way, it would be wise to devote 
four or five months to the preliminary work. The chief 
things to be accomplished for the children during the 
period of their preliminary preparation, whether this 
extend over six weeks or over half a school year, may be 
summed up under the following five heads : 1) to give the 
children a realization of the school as an enlarged and 
specialized home; 2) to develop the individual child's 
power of adjusting himself to his physical environment ; 
3) to teach the children to co-operate with each other 
and with their teacher ; 4) to enlarge the children's spoken 
vocabulary; 5) to develop a limited written vocabulary 
selected with direct reference to their first book. 



ADJUSTMENT TO SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT 



27 



From Home to School. The unity and continuity of 
the child's unfolding mental life demand that the transi- 
tion from home to school be made with as little shock to 
the child as possible. Every available means should be 
employed to bridge over the chasm which too frequently 
separates the school from the home. The home is the 
only world known to the child during the pre-school 
period of his existence. In all his mental attitudes, from 
the dawn of his conscious life to the moment of his ad- 
vent in the school, he leans upon the members of the 
home group. Nothing has any value in his eyes until it is 
brought into the home circle, and nothing is understood 
until it is taken up by the apperception masses that are 
derived wholly from home experiences. Hence, the com- 
petent primary teacher will seek out effective means of 
bringing the home into the the school and of bringing the 
school into the homes of the children. At all stages in the 
educational process the co-operation of the home and the 
school is desirable, but at no other stage is it so neces- 
sary as during the first days of the child's school life. To 
enlarge the child's mental horizon and to render him self- 
helpful and self-reliant, are among the functions of the 
school. But it must not be forgotten that these qualities 
cannot be "developed in the child if the continuity of his 
mental life is broken. His instincts and his early home 
experiences constitute the nucleus of his growing 
mental life. Only such elements as are incorporated into 
this growing nucleus can ever live in his mind; all else 
must remain foreign and dead, a mere memory-load at 
best. It is for this reason that stress is here laid upon 
making the transition from home to school as gradual 
as possible. The competent teacher will find in the local 
situation many suggestions that will prove helpful in the 



28 TEACHERS MANUAL. OF PRIMARY METHODS 

difficult task of transplanting the child into the school. 
The few suggestions here offered should be considered 
in the light of examples rather than as a summary of 
what may be accomplished in this direction : 

Visiting. The mother or some other responsible mem- 
ber of the home group should, whenever possible, accom- 
pany the child to the school on the first day and present 
him to the teacher. This visit should be followed, at 
comparatively brief intervals, by other visits of the 
parents or guardians to the child's class. In this way the 
child is made to feel that the members of the home group 
are interested in all that he does in school and they thus 
continue, in a diminished degree, to be his standard of 
reference while he is acquiring new standards and new 
interests. Advantages distinct from the foregoing, but 
similar to them in many ways, may be derived from the 
teacher's visits to the children in their homes. The 
teacher's first visit to the child in his home environment 
makes her, in a measure, a member of the home group and 
gives the child a feeling of confidence in her judgments 
just because it gives him a realization that she under- 
stands all those things that have hitherto made up his 
world. And in this the child's thought is not far from 
the truth. The teacher will gain in insight and in sympa- 
thy for the children almost as much as the children gain 
in other ways from her visit. Moreover, through this 
interchange of visits between parents and teachers much 
may be accomplished in the securing of a closer co- 
operation between the home and the school in the work of 
developing the children. 

Gifts. Among all primitive peoples gifts are a token 
of friendship and they are used as a means of uniting 



ADJUSTMENT TO SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT 29 

various social groups. This practice would seem to have 
an instinctive basis in the child 's life. At all events, it 
is deep-rooted and potent in its effects. The wise parent 
will, consequently, teach the children, particularly the lit- 
tle ones in the first grade, to take such gifts as flowers, 
fruits, sweets, etc., to their teacher. And one of the first 
occupations of the children in school should be the making 
of things for home inspection and for gifts to the mem- 
bers of the home circle. 

School Possessions. It has often been observed that 
when a man buys a home he takes root in the place and 
develops a new interest in his neighbors, and seeks to pro- 
mote the prosperity of the entire community. This is a 
legitimate outgrowth of the property instinct which may 
be observed even among the higher animals. This in- 
stinct holds no inconsiderable place in the child 's life and 
it should be utilized by the teacher in making him feel at 
home in the school. Hence the child should be given a 
seat and a desk as soon as possible. These possessions 
will constitute for him his home in the new social en- 
vironment and here he should accumulate as his own the 
tools and instruments which he is learning to use in his 
school work. It is a mistake of the gravest nature, and 
one that leads to socialism and anarchy as its legitimate 
fruits, to have everything in the room belong to the school 
and to have nothing in it which belongs to the child. The 
instinct of individual ownership is the root of many of 
the noblest virtues of individual life and of many of the 
fundamental social institutions. Here we can only hint 
at a few of these, such as neatness, care in the perform- 
ance of the tasks of every-day life, a sense of personal 
responsibility, a sense of honesty and integrity in dealing 
with others. These and similar virtues are the result 



30 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

of this instinct, properly directed and modified; and 
home itself may be numbered among the first social in- 
stitutions to spring from this apparently selfish instinct. 

Love. Parental love is the dominant element in the life 
of a normal child during the first years of his existence 
and, consequently, the child is not transferred in reality 
to the school until this love between parent and child is 
transferred, in due measure, to the relationship between 
teacher and child. As a rule, the hearts of the children 
are easily won. Should difficulty in the matter appear, 
it may almost invariably be traced to the teacher. If the 
teacher really loves the children as a mother should, 
she will rarely meet with any grave obstacle in win- 
ning their hearts. She should never forget that she 
stands in the primary room as the representative of the 
mother and that unless she loves the children she is as 
much out of place there as a mother who does not love her 
children would be in the home, and to all right-minded 
people she is just as great a monster. On the other hand, 
where the bond of love between the child and the teacher 
is strong and wholesome, the school rapidly becomes a 
veritable home for the child, and within its sacred pre- 
cincts he will grow naturally in knowledge and in love. 

Authority. The school is supported by society that it 
may prepare worthy citizens of the State, and this im- 
plies primarily citizens with an abiding respect for au- 
thority and deep-seated habits of obedience to all legiti- 
mate laws and obligations. For the child, home is the 
well-spring of authority. Here nature forms him to obe- 
dience and reverence. It is a reverence and obedience 
so bound up with love that it has in it the power of call- 
ing forth the noblest elements in his nature. This 



ADJUSTMENT TO SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT 31 

attitude must be enlarged until it embraces the authority 
represented in the school, for it is only in this way that 
the child may learn to bow in obedience without losing 
freedom, courage and manliness. The school must main- 
tain its discipline, but if it does this by an appeal to brute 
force it inflicts lasting injury upon the children and plants 
in their hearts the seeds of rebellion and of anarchy. 

Religion. Eeligion, above all things else, binds the 
home and the school together and makes of them parts 
of a larger whole. Just as in our travels the sun, the 
moon, and the stars accompany us and make us realize 
that there are bonds which bind together the most distant 
lands, and as the Catholic who on his journey in foreign 
lands enters a Catholic church and assists at Mass 
realizes that he is in his Father 's home, and for the time 
being ceases to think of color and race, national bounda- 
ries and intervening oceans, so the properly taught child 
on entering school brings with him God, Jesus, Mary and 
Joseph, his Guardian Angel, and all the inhabitants of 
the spiritual world. When he joins his companions in 
prayer on his first morning in school, he is more conscious 
of the tie that binds the home and the school together than 
he is of the great distances that in so many respects sepa- 
rate for him the home from the school. Of course he 
does not reason about this, nor meditate upon likenesses 
and differences ; he is simply conscious that his spiritual 
world has remained unchanged, while all that is material 
and visible in his environment is shifting and taking on 
new forms. Thus the religious element in the child's life 
is rendered more explicit and so gains in strength. And 
this is as it should be, for religion is not only the most 
important element in the child's education, but it also fur- 
nishes the most potent means of transplanting the child 



32 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

without shock from the home to the school. The teacher 
in the Catholic school, accordingly, will not fail to take 
advantage of this side of the child's nature to make him 
feel at home in the school, as those teachers do who lay 
the chief emphasis on the secular elements in the child's 
education. 



CHAPTER II 

THE ADJUSTMENT OF THE CHILD TO HIS 
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 

The child spends the first five or six years of his con- 
scious life in the home exploring his physical environ- 
ment and learning how to adjust himself to it. During 
those early years he has accomplished tasks as difficult 
as any that he will be called upon to perform in any sim- 
ilar period of time. He has learned how to stand erect 
and how to walk. He has learned how to talk and has 
probably acquired a relatively large oral vocabulary. He 
has learned to do many things with his hands and, 
through imitating the actions and the attitudes of the 
people around him, he has learned to interpret looks, ges- 
tures, and actions of many kinds. 

Mental Continuity 

If the continuity of the child's mental life is to be pre- 
served, his early occupations in school must be closely 
related to his previous home occupations. What was be- 
gun in the home must be continued and completed in the 
school, while new occupations are gradually introduced 
as modifications of the old. His first weeks in school will, 
consequently, be occupied in large measure in the perfect- 
ing of his adjustments tofhis physical environment, which 
was the chief occupation of the earlier home days. This 
is demanded in order to bridge over the chasm between 
the home and the school and it is also demanded for many 
other grave reasons. 



34 teachers manual of primary methods 

Health 

To preserve the child's health, it is necessary to de- 
velop his heart and lungs and muscles. He must not be 
allowed to sit still during long stretches of time. All of 
the first year, and particularly the first few weeks, should 
be full of action. His mind must be given as complete 
a control as possible over his body. His muscles must 
be brought under the control of his will. In this way 
only may he hope to gain freedom and grace of move- 
ment, which are no less desirable from a hygienic view- 
point than from practical and aesthetic ones. 

Sensory-Motor Training 

The sensory-motor reaction is the first element to be 
developed in the child's conscious life and its importance 
throughout the entire developmental process can scarcely 
be over-estimated. It lies at the base of all other modes 
of expression and even cognition itself does not proceed 
far in advance of it. The constant relation between im- 
pression and expression, between cognition and action, 
has been stressed in all the leading works in modern 
psychology. If any teacher feels inclined to question the 
body of expert authority on this subject, and to doubt the 
advisability of making the child 's first days in school pre- 
dominantly days of action instead of days of passivity, or 
receptivity, he need only turn to the Gospels, where he 
will learn that only those who are faithful over a few 
things will be placed over many, that the fig tree which 
does not bear fruit is cast into the fire, and that those who 
enter the kingdom do the will of the Father instead of 
contenting himself with saying Lord, Lord. Before 
loading the child's memory with truths to be assimilated, 



ADJUSTMENT TO PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 35 

it is highly important that he be given freedom in his 
movements and accuracy in their co-ordination. It is also 
well that he be given some measure of skill in handling 
instruments and in dealing with materials. All of this is 
generally admitted to-day, and, as a consequence, the 
primary room instead of being a quiet, sad place, where 
little children fear to move lest they should disturb a 
nervous teacher or break in upon the profound trains of 
thought whereby their young companions are learning 
to master the A B C's, presents a joyous, active scene, 
where the children under the law of imitation learn from 
each other more than they learn from the teacher and 
where they learn by doing rather than by hearing. 

Action Drills 

A great many exercises have been suggested for the 
first grade and a variety of exercises is indeed highly 
desirable. In this way symmetry is preserved and the 
interest of the children is more readily held ; but if good 
results are to be hoped for, the work should be carefully 
planned for the attainment of definite ends. The follow- 
ing exercises should be regarded as suggestive and typi- 
cal; they are not meant as a comprehensive list. 

Action games. Action games involving flying, running, 
hopping, skipping, and dancing, give healthful exercise 
to the larger muscles. They give freedom and grace to 
bodily movements and when properly conducted, minister 
to the child's health by developing his heart and lungs 
as well as his voluntary muscles. These games should 
also be made the basis of his language work. 

Rhythmic work. Ehythm is one of the most far-reaching 
laws in the world. Everywhere, from the rhythm of the 



36 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 

planet in its elliptical orbit to the furthermost bounds of 
the realm of thought, the law of rhythm holds supreme 
sway. Action and reaction are equal and opposite. 
Every observer of child-life has noticed that rhythmic 
movement is the joy of the child. Indeed, it is chiefly 
through rhythmic movement that the child gains control 
of his voluntary muscles. Everything in his physical be- 
ing is under the law of rhythm : his respiration, the beat- 
ing of his heart, the nutritive rhythms of his tissues, and 
the longer rhythms of his vegetative functions. Even 
in adult life, the most thoroughly trained groups of mus- 
cles in the body are still difficult to manage without the 
aid of rhythm. A soldier can march twelve miles with 
fife and drum with the same expenditure of energy that 
would be required to march seven miles without music. 
What wonder, then, that rhythm should be called upon to 
aid the young child in gaining control of his muscular 
movements. In dancing, rhythm gives grace of move- 
ment and ready control of the larger muscles, while in 
blackboard exercises, such as drawing and writing, the 
movement of the whole body to some simple tune serves 
to remove all stiffness and cramp from the hand and 
wrist. 

Busy work. Such occupations as cutting and folding 
paper, work with the sand table, clay modeling, drawing, 
and painting in water colors, serve to give precision to 
the hand and to co-ordinate its movements with the eye. 
These exercises have many educative values besides those 
here pointed out. They must necessarily receive atten- 
tion as the child passes up through the school. They in- 
terest us here only in so far as they help to lay the founda- 
tion of the child >s adjustment to his physical environ- 
ment. 



CHAPTER III 

Teaching the Childken to Co-opeeate 

The child begins his existence in total dependence upon 
his parents and he must learn to be self -helpful before 
proceeding to help others. In other words, in his devel- 
opment the individual side of his nature must precede the 
social side. Children must have learned to do things 
separately before they can do them jointly. This, by the 
way, is true not only of children but also of adults; 
moreover, it holds in all walks of life. While it is true 
that man attains his highest level and tastes his highest 
joys as a social being, it does not cease to be true that the 
roots of his being, from which flow all the sap and energy 
of life, are to be found on the individual side of his nature. 
This fundamental truth seems to be overlooked by the 
anarchist and the extreme socialist. But while this is all 
true, and in recognition of its truth, it is conceded that the 
child's school work should begin with the individual side 
of his nature, it is equally true that the process of educa- 
tion should not end there. 

The Functions of Play 

It should be remembered, however, that the process 
of individual development is not completed before the 
process of social development sets in. One precedes the 
other, it is true, somewhat in order of time and very de- 
cidedly in order of nature; nevertheless, both processes 
take place simultaneously throughout all the years of 



38 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

school life, the individual development merely main- 
taining its priority in the two parallel lines. 

Man is essentially a social being and he mnst learn to 
co-operate with his fellow man in the attainment of all 
the higher ends of life. This co-operation began, in fact, 
in the pre-school period of the child 's existence and it 
must be continued and perfected in the school. There 
are few who would be willing to controvert this truth to- 
day. It is being embodied in the work of the primary 
grades in such exercises as singing, marching, dramatic 
games, and co-operative industry. These exercises are so 
familiar and so varied that we need not pause to dwell 
upon them. They are obviously and of necessity closely 
connected with the exercises mentioned in the preceding 
sections. The same ends in the adjustment of the pupil 
to his physical environment are attained, with the addi- 
tion of the social elements which give buoyancy and joy 
to what might otherwise drag and lose interest for the 
child. 

Motor Expression. Zest is a large factor in the good 
results to be attained through these exercises. Man's 
social proclivities and the glory of his intellectual achieve- 
ments should not blind us to the fact that he has not 
ceased to be an animal, nor to the further fact that the 
animal side of his nature still calls imperatively for the 
old forms of response to feeling and to sense-impression. 
This demand for motor expression is particularly urgent 
during the years of physical development, and the 
strength of heart and brain, of muscle and lung, in the 
adult depends, in large measure, upon the running games 
of childhood. 



TEACHING THE CHILDREN TO CO-OPERATE 39 

No formal exercise, however, performed in obedience 
to disciplinarians, can ever minister efficiently to the 
growing framework of life. When the motor-response 
is the natural terminus of an impulse arising in sense im- 
pressions, the stream of vital energy flowing through 
channels prearranged by ages of inheritance tends to 
build up the organism symmetrically and to preserve bal- 
ance between the functions of the various organs. The 
artificial training of the motor side of the child, however 
necessary under abnormal conditions, can rarely be sub- 
stituted for the natural process without permanent in- 
jury to him. When exercise is indulged in as a task, the 
motor activities cease to be the natural expression of the 
sensory impulse; and the organs called into play, not 
by the impulses of surging life, but by the command of 
the will, are restricted, in large measure, to those which 
are directly employed in the execution of the voluntary 
command. The other organs that would have functioned 
concomitantly under normal conditions and that conse- 
quently would have developed symmetrically, remain un- 
exercised and undeveloped. 

Joyousness. The spirit of joyousness should pervade 
the primary classroom and the elements of play should 
hold a large and important place in it ; but play is not and 
should not be made the center of the school life, nor the 
most important element in it, nor should we make the 
mistake of supposing that it is the only source of the 
child's joy. The highest joys he shall taste in after years, 
and even in these early years, are derived from success- 
ful achievement, and his sweetest moments are those that 
register in his consciousness duties well done. To pre- 
serve its zest, for the child or for the man, anything 



40 TEACHEES MANUAL. OF PRIMARY METHODS 

must be used with renunciation. Even play, when over- 
indulged in, fails to yield the child the expected meed of 
joy. Play is intended by nature to develop the social ele- 
ment in the child and through the social element to lift 
his faculties as an individual to a higher plane. Play, 
however, is but the initial stage ; its function is to prepare 
the way for the serious aspects of living, and when it 
lingers on unduly, it defeats the purpose for which it was 
designed by nature. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE IMPARTING OF SUITABLE THOUGHT 

MATERIAL 

While the child's eye and hand are busy with many 
things, and while he learns to use all of his muscles and 
grows from day to day in physical health and strength, 
his mind must not be starved. Nor will it suffice to keep 
him busy with the trivial and with the mechanical de- 
tails of his physical adjustment. He must grow, day by 
day, towards an understanding of the great fundamental 
truths that will later on serve him in adjusting himself 
to God and to his fellow man. He has, as yet, little or no 
ability to derive food material for himself from nature 
and still less power to derive nutriment for mind and 
heart from books. 

Stoey Telling 

During the first year in school, the child's mind must be 
fed largely through his ear. The primary teacher must 
be par excellence a good story teller, and she should use 
her gift to such purpose that the child's mental content 
will grow from day to day in richness and in vigor. As 
the mind's appetite grows by what it feeds upon, the 
child will come, little by little, to feel the pressure of soul- 
hunger driving him on to master the instrumentalities 
of thought-getting. He will thus be led by an inward 
impulse to overcome the difficulties of learning to read 
and of gaining control of scientific technique. The 



42 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

thought material given to a child must not be determined 
by the mere fact that it may interest him for the moment. 
The aim should be to implant in his mind germinal truths 
which, as they unfold, will lead him into the ever- widen- 
ing fields of his five-fold spiritual inheritance. 

Correlation 

The child needs frequent change of occupation. The 
period should never be longer than twenty minutes during 
the first year, and a period of from five to ten minutes 
will usually be found more serviceable. But the mistake 
should not be made on that account of plunging the child 
into disconnected and uncoordinated occupations. The 
result of such procedure would be the arrest of mental 
development, the destruction of attention and a discon- 
nected, scatter-brained character, — faults which it is very 
difficult to remedy at a later stage of the educative process. 
The successful teacher of the first primary grade must 
know how, in the midst of apparent diversity, to preserve 
the closest possible coordination and the strictest unity in 
the thought-material which she is supplying to her class. 
She must lay the foundations of Letters and Science, of 
Aesthetics, Institutions and Eeligion, as well as secure 
the physical well-being of the child. But these aims 
should never be separated in the successive occupations 
of the child; the change must always be a change of 
emphasis and of point of view, preserving all the while 
the unity which is so imperatively demanded by the in- 
choate and extremely limited apperception masses of the 
child. 



CHAPTER V 

THE CHILD'S SPOKEN VOCABULAEY 

In the early days in the first grade, the teacher should 
devote more time and attention to developing and per- 
fecting the child's command of spoken language than to 
the delicate and difficult task of laying the foundations of 
written langauge. 

Home Pkepaeation 

In exceptional cases the child of six has learned to 
read at home, but most of the children entering the first 
grade are acquainted with language only in its spoken 
form. Moreover, there will usually be found a great 
diversity among the children in the extent and perfection 
of their spoken vocabulary no less than in their use of 
grammatical forms. Children who have spent all their 
early days in association with people of culture whose 
native tongue is English, frequently possess a good com- 
mand of their mother-tongue in its spoken form before 
they reach the age of six. But the rank and file of 
our children are not so fortunate in their surround- 
ings. Their spoken vocabulary is often quite limited in 
range and full of imperfections, and their grammar re- 
flects, with the same certainty, the crudities of home life 
and the imperfections in speech which naturally char- 
acterize the homes of our foreign population, especially 
where English is spoken with difficulty. Nevertheless, it 
is with this vocabulary that the children must begin their 



44 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

school work, and the teacher who would succeed must 
meet them where they are and lead them by gentle, uncon- 
scious steps, to better ways. 

Correcting Errors 

The child's spoken vocabulary constitutes a bond be- 
tween the home and the school and it should not be 
disturbed until the child has learned to feel quite at 
home in his new suroundings. After a few days the 
teacher may correct imperfections in pronunciation and 
mistakes in the use of words, but in this she should pro- 
ceed with great care. The children must not be humiliated 
or made self-conscious, and above all there must be no 
implied correction of the home standards. Nothing must 
be said or done that would appear to the child as a re- 
flection upon the knowledge of the home group, whose 
authority has been his sole reliance. The teacher must, 
indeed, win the child 's confidence and lead him to respect 
her authority in all matters dealt with in the school, but 
this must not be done by sacrificing his respect for home 
authority. On the contrary, she must clothe herself in all 
things with the parental authority and should speak to 
the child as one delegated by the home. 

In the primary grades, the negative method should be 
avoided with scrupulous care ; this is particularly true of 
the initial stages of the work, for, in addition to the usual 
danger of the method, there is here the added danger of 
injuring fundamental elements in the child's character 
and of weakening his respect for parental authority. If 
the teacher uses language correctly herself, and if she 
insists upon the child's using it correctly, there will be 



SPOKEN VOCABULARY 45 

no need to call the attention of the school to his mistakes 
in pronunciation and in the use of words. These mis- 
takes, if left unemphasized, will disappear rapidly. 

When English is the native language of the child, the 
teacher need not be seriously concerned with the task 
of increasing his spoken vocabulary. This will grow 
naturally and without apparent effort on her part. But, 
as there are always some less fortunate children in the 
room, and sometimes they are in the majority, the work 
of developing spoken language should be undertaken with 
great care and pursued with system. 

Enlarging the Spoken Vocabulary 

The task of developing the child's spoken language 
may be divided into two parts : the first of these consists 
in perfecting the child's enunciation and pronunciation 
and in correcting erroneous grammatical forms ; the sec- 
ond consists in adding new elements. 

If the first task is undertaken quietly and unobtrusively, 
progress will be sure and rapid. The children, at this 
age, are under the complete sway of the law of imitation, 
and if they hear from the teacher distinct utterance, cor- 
rect pronunciation, pleasing emphasis, and a sweet, well- 
modulated voice, the improvement in their language will 
be observable from day to day. The teacher's work will 
be greatly aided if there is present in the class a fairly 
good proportion of children who come from homes of 
culture. 

The second portion of the work has to do with enlarg- 
ing the child's spoken vocabulary and with giving him 
mastery over more complex forms of speech. In this the 



46 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PKIMAEY METHODS 

teacher should be guided by the book which is first to be 
put into the child's hands. During the first year, at 
least, the child should have an easy and perfect control, 
in their spoken form, of the words and phrases which he 
is about to meet in his written work. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE CHILD'S WEITTEN VOCABULAEY 

Three principles should guide the teacher in the selec- 
tion of the words and phrases which she uses in laying 
the foundation of the child's knowledge of written lan- 
guage: 1) The words should be associated with the 
most vivid portions of the child's apperception masses. 
This is rendered necessary in order to establish in his 
mind the habit of holding the thing signified in the focus 
of consciousness and of allowing the symbol or word to 
function in the indirect field of mental vision. This will 
be dealt with more fully in the chapter on the context 
method of reading. 2) In the first stages of acquiring 
the power of written language the new written words 
should, as far as possible, be action words. Mental im- 
pressions in children are rendered permanent with dif- 
ficulty unless they are associated with the functioning 
of the motor areas of the brain. 3) Time and energy 
will be saved by selecting the words and phrases taught 
to the child during the preliminary period in school from 
those employed in the first book which he is to use. Unity 
and continuity of mental life will thus be secured and 
interest will be deepened and concentrated. 

The Woed and the Thought 

The child's written vocabulary acquired in the first 
grade should lie well within the limits of his spoken 
vocabulary. It should contain at least seven or eight 
hundred well-chosen words. By this, however, we do 
not wish to be understood as advocating the practice of 



48 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

making the children memorize these words and drilling 
them frequently on their spelling. All this might be 
accomplished for the child and still we might find him 
without that control of a written vocabulary which may 
legitimately be expected of him at the end of his first 
year in school. jWe want the child to think in written 
symbols with the same ease with which he thinks in 
spoken language. The only difference between the two 
sets of word memories at the end of the first year should 
be one of extent. 

After the child has learned to recognize a few words 
and a few simple sentences, he should be taught to write 
them first on the blackboard, and after a time to write 
them on paper at his desk. Children at the age of six 
learn most things through imitation and it is in this way 
that they learn to write. They observe the movements of 
the teacher's hand and arm and try to imitate them, but 
apart altogether from the voluntary effort at imitation, 
the mental picture of the motions, which reaches the brain 
through the eye, tends to realize itself in the child 's action. 
There is no question whatever about the fact that a visual 
image which finds a pathway to reproduction through the 
motor center is thereby deepened and strengthened. Con- 
sequently, while the child is being taught through these 
various means to write and to spell, he is at the same time 
perfecting the visual imagery which will enable him to 
read with ease. 

From Script to Print 

In stamping the words on the child's visual memory, 
recourse is frequently had during the first few weeks in 
school to desk work with pegs, colored and uncolored 



WKITTEN VOCABULAEY 49 

sticks, seeds, the dissected alphabet, etc. Such exercises, 
when indulged in with moderation, and in a supple- 
mentary role, prove helpful; but they should not con- 
stitute the main reliance of the teacher in the difficult 
task of teaching the children to take their first steps in 
the art of writing. 

After a small working vocabulary in script form has 
been acquired through the use of these various devices, 
the children should be taught the same words in sentences 
in printed form by means of suitable charts. The stories 
that have been developed on the blackboard should be 
printed on cardboard slips and placed on the chalk-ledge 
of the board underneath the written forms. This will enable 
the children to compare the written and the script forms 
and aid them in making the requisite transition before 
recourse is had to the book. 

The Child's Fikst Book 

It is important that care be exercised in selecting the 
right words and stories to prepare the child for the use 
of his first book, hence a later chapter in this manual 
is devoted to setting forth the materials to be used on 
blackboard and chart during the weeks or months that 
precede the use of the first book. Of course, the book 
must be determined beforehand, since on it must depend, 
in large measure, the choice of material selected, and in 
this instance we naturally chose Eeligion, First Book. 

But there are other factors besides the first book to be 
taken into consideration in preparing the material if 
we are to achieve the highest success. The spoken vo- 
cabulary of the children, their home environment, and 



50 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

their previous experience, will all be taken into account 
by the efficient teacher in her selection of the words and 
phrases which she employs in her blackboard and chart 
work. But even for her, the material offered in this 
book will prove helpful, since it shows what words must 
be developed before the book is attempted. Words other 
than these may, indeed, be employed where the local 
circumstances demand, and they may be made very serv- 
iceable in these early exercises ; but if success in the use 
of the series of readers is looked for, its requirements 
in vocabulary building in this preliminary stage must be 
complied with. In the preparation of the readers, great 
care was exercised in the vocabulary used. In the first 
stories there will be found a large percentage of action 
words, and the other words used are taken from the most 
familiar portions of the average child's mental content. 
When, in consequence, the vocabulary used during this 
preliminary period is chosen with reference to these re- 
quirements, it is at the same time brought into con- 
formity with the other principles cited above. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE CHILD'S FIEST DAY IN SCHOOL 

The child's education, in reality, begins with the dawn 
of his conscious life and it is quite advanced when, in his 
sixth year, he makes his first momentous journey from 
home to school to begin there the work of his formal edu- 
cation in a new environment, under the eyes of a number 
of strange children, in an institution that is wholly un- 
familiar and with a teacher who is a stranger to him. 

It is not probable that the child will ever again be 
called upon to submit to so sudden and so radical a 
change in all those things that affect the deeper currents 
of his life here and that determine his eternal destiny 
hereafter. So radical, in fact, is this change that we are 
accustomed to think of the child's first day in school as 
the beginning of a new mode of life and we habitually 
speak of it as the date on which his education began. 

The difficulty and importance attaching to the child's 
transition from the home to the school are, in themselves, 
sufficient reasons for demanding in the first grade teacher 
the highest degree of pedagogical skill, but in addition 
to this she must help the child to make a beginning 
along several new lines of activity. Were one of these 
to be dealt with at a time, the matter would be sufficiently 
difficult ; but when they must all be dealt with at the same 
time, the difficulty is greatly increased. 

It must be taken for granted that the teacher to whom 
this important work is entrusted is prepared by training 
and experience to deal with the situation. Nevertheless, 



52 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

a concrete sketch of the child's first day in school is pre- 
sented here, not indeed that the teacher is expected to 
follow it literally, but that it may serve the purpose of 
illustrating the bearing of certain educational principles 
on the various exercises which engage the attention of 
the children when they begin their work in school. 

The day's work outlined in the program supposes that 
at least a majority of the children have attended the 
kindergarten department of the school during the pre- 
ceding school year. When all the children come directly 
from home without having had the advantage of kinder- 
garten training, modifications will have to be made. The 
work of registering pupils and interviewing parents will 
take longer and will consequently delay the introduction 
by the Principal. It will also probably be wise to attempt 
fewer exercises on the first day when the children are en- 
tirely without training along co-operative lines and when 
the strangeness of their environment is likely to inhibit 
their tendency to express themselves in any way. Every 
teacher who has had experience in dealing with the first 
grade knows that it is difficult if not quite impossible to 
carry out a rigid program on the opening day of school ; 
nevertheless, a definite program has its value as an ideal. 

Program for the First Day 
Morning 

Introduction by the Principal 9 — 9:20 

Greeting Game 9:20 — 9:40 

Assignment of Places 9:40 — 9:55 

Action Game 9:55 — 10 

Story— 10—10:15 



FIEST DAY IN SCHOOL 53 

Eecess, out-doors 10:15 — 10:30 

Sleeping Game, Surprise 10:30 — 10:40 

Seat Work 10 :40— 10 :55 

Concert Eecitation 10 :55— 11 :15 

Good-Bye Song 11 :15— 11 :20 

Prayer 11 :20— 11 :25 

Dismissal 11 :25— 11 :30 

Afternoon 

Individual Welcome 1:15 — 1:25 

Finding Seats 1:25—1:30 

Prayer 1:30—1:35 

Talk 1:35—1:45 

Finger Song 1:45—1:50 

Music Lesson 1:50 — 2:05 

Action Game 2 :05— 2 :10 

Seat Work 2:30—2:45 

Sleeping Game 2:45 — 2:50 

Sense Training 2:50—3:05 

Seat Work 3:05—3:20 

Good-Night Song 3:20—3:25 

Prayer 3:25—3:30 

Dismissal 3:30 

Introduction by the Principal. However fragmentary 
and disconnected this program may seem on its face, the 
teacher will readily bring out the unity in it by making 
the various exercises tend to accomplish a single object. 
The main object on the first morning in school is to make 
the children feel at home as soon as possible; hence 
the teacher should at once assign them to places and 
she should be careful to keep them interested and busy so 
that they may forget the strangeness of the environ- 
ment. Prayer and action, it is to be hoped, call upon 
familiar apperception masses in all the children. 



54 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMABY METHODS 

One of the chief benefits of the kindergarten is the help 
which it affords in the difficult task of bridging over the 
chasm between the home and the school. This end is 
best attained when the kindergarten is conducted as a 
department of the school, in which case it must be co- 
ordinated with the work of the first grade. In this way 
the children become familiar with the school and its 
population and they also learn to look upon the Principal 
as the embodiment of authority. During the last weeks 
of their sojourn in the kindergarten their attention should 
be constantly turned towards the first grade room and 
their ambition to enter it should be aroused in every way 
possible. They should also be visited from time to time 
by the first grade teacher, who in this way learns what 
they can do best, what songs they like best to sing, what 
games they take chief delight in, etc. The primary 
teacher should take advantage of all this to get them 
started in the work of the first grade without unnecessary 
strain. 

The children should be led gradually to realize that 
teachers are not following their own caprices but are 
obeying a higher authority, which for them is vested in 
the Principal or Pastor as the case may be; hence, it 
would be well that the Principal or Pastor should bring 
the children from the kindergarten to the first grade and 
formally introduce them to their teacher and start them 
in their new field of work. In the meanwhile the primary 
teacher should prepare the class of the preceding year to 
accompany the Principal to the next higher grade. As 
the Principal, with the kindergarten children following 
her, enters the room, the former primary grade pupils 
should relinquish their seats to the newcomers and stand 



FIRST DAY IN SCHOOL 55 

aside while they listen to the Principal 's talk and wait for 
her to accompany them to the next room. 

Of course the Principal's talk to the children should 
be spontaneous and it should be drawn from local cir- 
cumstances and from her acquaintance with the children 's 
work in the kindergarten, but it should contain the fol- 
lowing three items, clothed in language and imagery 
suited to the capacity of the little ones: 1) The high 
standard which the first grade room has always main- 
tained should call forth the best efforts of the children 
during the coming year. They must not allow themselves 
to be outdone by their predecessors. 2) The teacher is 
the Principal's representative and the Principal will hold 
her responsible for the children, and will look forward to 
hearing as pleasant things concerning their conduct and 
application during the present year as she heard from 
their teacher in the kindergarten during the past year. 
3) The work of the primary grade is the foundation of the 
work in all the grades and it must be well done for the 
sake of the entire school. 

Of course the children cannot be expected to grasp the 
full significance of these elementary truths; neverthe- 
less, if they are properly presented, they make a lasting 
impression on the minds of the little ones on this first 
morning in the primary room. The excitement and the 
pleasurable emotional tension generated by the circum- 
stances will tend to make these lessons sink deep into 
the budding minds of the little ones. A few simple words 
of the Principal's introduction will serve to make the 
children realize their growing participation in the social 
activity of this new institution — the school. They should 
help to develop the social side of the child's nature and 



56 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 

bring him some little way toward a rational obedience 
to authority as vested in his superiors. 

When the kindergarten is not co-ordinated with the 
work of the first grade, it is apt to unfit the children for 
the more severe drills of this grade. Such a kinder- 
garten has very little to commend it. It is better to have 
no training than to have training in the wrong direction, 
and any direction in a child's training is wrong that does 
not lead by the straightest path to the work that he is 
next to undertake. 

Too frequently kindergartens, particularly private 
kindergartens, seem to keep no other end in view than 
that of amusing the children and teaching them aimless 
games and plays. It will not do to say that such plays 
make the children graceful, that they keep them inter- 
ested and happy and consequently that they minister to 
the child's well-being. Play is intended by nature not as 
an end in itself, but as a means to an end, and when this 
has been lost sight of in the kindergarten and the children 
have been formed in habits of play undertaken without 
any serious occupations in view, an injury has been in- 
flicted on them and it is not easy to lift them into a health- 
ful school attitude. 

When the children about to enter the first grade have 
not had a kindergarten training in the school, the Prin- 
cipal 's talk will be somewhat more difficult and it will 
scarcely be productive of results such as we here hope 
for ; nevertheless, it will accomplish something. 

Greeting Game. After the Principal has left the room, 
taking with her the children who are promoted to the next 
grade, the teacher should take hold of the class without 
hesitation or delay and should deal with the children as 



FIEST DAY IN SCHOOL 



57 



one having authority. Delay is dangerous. Too much 
talking on the part of the teacher is demoralizing. Action 
is the thing needed ; it is the one thing that the children 
understand and the aim should be to keep them active 
until their interest is aroused and until correct habits 
of work are formed. They must not be given time to 
sit still and study the teacher until after they have grown 
to know her and to respond naturally to her directions. 

A greeting game, well planned and well carried out, is 
an excellent way in which to deal with the situation. 
The children should be told that their parents and friends, 
as well as strangers, are likely to visit them and they 
must all know how to receive them and to greet them 
properly. One child is selected to play the role of visitor 
and he is told to go out of the room and knock at the 
door. When he has done this, the teacher opens the door 

and greets him as Mr. . Bringing him to the front of 

the room she presents him to the class, whereupon all the 
children are taught to rise and return the salutation. 
This process is repeated, several different children taking 
their turn in the role of visitor while the teacher en- 
deavors to have the class rise, bow and salute in chorus. 
Soft, low, sweet voices are held up for admiration. In 
this way the children's thoughts linger with the home 
group for a time. Their interest is maintained while they 
are being taught in a practical way the proper use of 
their voices, the beauty of good manners, and the value 
of concert work. This exercise might well conclude with 
one of the pretty good-morning songs to be found in any 
kindergarten manual. 

Assignment of Places. The third exercise in the pro- 
gram is the assignment of places. The children should 



58 TEACHEES MANUAL OP PBIMAKY METHODS 

be made to feel at home in the school, and an important 
step in the accomplishment of this end is taken when we 
assign to each child a desk and a seat that are to be his 
own during his sojourn in the room. The property in- 
stinct is here appealed to and the child's individuality is 
allowed to assert itself. As the days go by, he should 
gradually be made to feel his responsibility for these 
school possessions by keeping not only his desk but its 
immediate environment clean and tasteful. This practice 
will nourish the roots of many social virtues, such as 
honesty, order, neatness, etc. 

The analogy between the rows of desks and the aisles 
separating them to houses and streets is obvious and is 
not without its value to the children. Each child may 
easily be led to give the name of the street on which he 
lives and the number of his house. This leads the chil- 
dren into conversation with the teacher and removes the 
first shyness. Moreover, since the talk is about the child's 
home, it forms a sort of personal link between the teacher 
and the home group. The children will be interested in 
finding names for the streets of their new homes and 
numbers for their new houses. The children enter readily 
into the spirit of this game and for a little while, at least, 
they will delight in thinking of their new homes with 
their numbers and street names. Of course this game 
should not be indulged in after the first few days. In this 
simple exercise there is foreshadowed for the child the 
community life of a city and the responsibility of each 
householder towards the city at large for the condition 
of his premises and his sidewalk. 

To be ceaselessly active during his waking hours is 
the normal condition of the child of six; he has not 



PIRST DAY IN SCHOOL 



59 



yet outgrown that infantile condition in which every sen- 
sation and every perception tends to pass over without 
delay into action. In school he must learn to think, but 
this is a slow process, which, in the beginning, is so 
closely linked with the motor side of his life that thought 
without action is difficult and fatiguing to him. In the 
early stages of the process he must be given frequent 
rest, which he will find most naturally in the free play 
of his muscles. Hence the action game which constitutes 
the next exercise on the program. 

It should be borne in mind that the child in this 
stage of his development learns almost exclusively 
through imitation and that his whole being responds 
readily and joyously to the call for rhythmic motion. 
These considerations should determine the character of 
the actions to be employed. The children should be 
taught to stand in the aisles beside their desks, erect 
and alert. One row at a time should be asked to follow 
the teacher's lead in playing the games. After the chil- 
dren have been told what to do, the teacher should run 
around the room imitating the movements of a bird's 
wings with her arms, while singing some simple bird 
song in three-four time, such as the Brown Birds Are 
Flying. The children should imitate her movements 
without attempting to join in the song. She might next 
sing a running song in two-four time, such as The Squir- 
rel Song, acting the part of leader as before. Finally, she 
might sing a song in four-four time, such as the Soldier 
Boy, while she marches around the room with the children 
following her. 

Before each of these exercises the teacher should 
stimulate the imaginations of the children by suggesting 



60 TEACHEKS MANUAL. OF PRIMARY METHODS 

in a few appropriate words that they play bird, or squir- 
rel, or soldier, as the case may be. Of course, she 
takes the part of the mother bird, the mother squirrel, 
and the captain. As these games are repeated on suc- 
cessive days, they should be gradually developed. New 
details should be added each day and new situations 
should occasionally be suggested. New games should be 
added at frequent intervals, both for the sake of keeping 
up the children's interest and because of the important 
role which these action games play in building up the chil- 
dren's oral and written vocabularies. 

Story. The interval between the action games and 
the recess may be profitably rilled out with a short story 
about birds, such as that of the Morning Glory and the 
Eobins. The little morning glory that lives by the lilac 
bush is consumed with curiosity to see what the robins, 
who are building a nest in the bush so far above her 
head, are doing. A good little girl comes to the rescue 
by giving the morning glory a string on which she climbs 
up to the top of the fence and finally reaches a position 
on the lilac bush where she can look into the robin 's nest 
that is now the home of four little robins. If this in- 
terval and an occasional morning talk, which after the 
first day should take the place on the program of the Prin- 
cipal 's introduction, be used to good advantage, the chil- 
dren's imaginations will be prepared for the nature study 
work which forms so important a part of Eeligion, First 
Book. 

Sleeping Game and Surprise. When the children re- 
assemble after the out-door recess, they are likely to be 
full of excitement. They should be quieted down before 
their attention is turned to school exercises. This may 



FIEST DAY IN SCHOOL 61 

readily be accomplished through a sleeping game. In 
this the children are led to picture themselves as birds 
going to sleep with their heads under their wings. They 
should be told that they are not to wake up until the 
cuckoo calls them and that while they are asleep a fairy 
will bring something to each one of them. The teacher 
sings a lullaby, while she places a tray of colored pegs 
on each desk, and then wakes the children with a cuckoo 
call. This exercise of the imagination will usually be 
found effective in emptying the children's minds of the 
distracting thoughts engendered by the recess. It will 
also call up pleasurable feelings in the children, which 
is the proper solvent for the assimilation of their mental 
food. 

Seat Work. The seat work which follows this exercise 
presents many problems for solution. The work of the 
kindergarten must be taken as the starting point and the 
children must be led towards independence in their 
actions. In the kindergarten the teacher worked with 
the children whenever exercises in outlining were at- 
tempted. In the first grade the teacher should put on 
the board a simple outline of some familiar object, such 
as a house, and accompany it by an appropriate story. 
If the outline of a house is chosen, she should tell 
the children that it is a picture of their house. If 
the sketch is as diagrammatic as it should be, each child 
will see in it the picture of his own house, and this he 
should proceed to outline on his desk, making use of the 
colored pegs, which were given to him in the previous 
game. During this exercise she should pass from desk to 
desk, giving encouragement to all the children and help to 



62 TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PEIMAKY METHODS 

those who may need it. She should exercise great care, 
however, not to give unnecessary help. 

This exercise forms a transition between the out- 
lining as it is usually conducted in the kindergarten and 
the reproduction of forms from models, which should 
characterize the work of the first grade ; it contains an ap- 
peal to the child's constructive instinct; it develops the 
co-ordination of hand and eye to some extent and pre- 
pares in this way for later work in drawing and writing. 
There is obviously less difficulty in outlining a letter or a 
form with pegs than there is in doing so with a crayon. 
Corrections in the form are also more readily made in 
this way and the cramped position of the fingers 
which usually results from the child's first strained 
efforts to write is here avoided, while the form is being 
developed in his imagination and in his memory. After 
this has been accomplished, learning to write or to draw 
will be comparatively easy. 

The selection of a house as the subject of the outline 
work has a value of its own. It carries the child's 
thoughts back to his home and brings to him some of the 
ease generated by the home atmosphere in which he lives 
in imagination while making the sketch. Moreover, his 
memory clothes the meager outline on the blackboard 
with color and definiteness borrowed from the vivid ap- 
perception masses linked in his mind with the picture of 
his home. This in itself is no small factor in the suc- 
cessful issue of the work. Finally, in this exercise the 
children take a decided step towards independence of 
the teacher and this is one of the most important and 
the most difficult results to be achieved. It has just been 
said that the exercise should be the natural outgrowth of 



FIRST DAY IN SCHOOL 63 

the work done in the kindergarten, and this holds true 
even in cases where not more than a small percentage of 
the children come from the kindergarten, for in such 
cases the others are helped through the play of the imita- 
tive instinct. But where practically none of the children 
have had previous experience in outlining, the first few 
exercises should partake of the character of the kinder- 
garten work. 

Concert Recitation. After fifteen minutes of desk 
work, such as that described above, the children are in 
need of rest, which they will find in concert recitation. 
Some rhyme that they may have learned in the kinder- 
garten or at home, such as Two Little Black Birds, or any 
of the Mother Goose rhymes, will answer. After a few 
minutes ' training in concert recitation, they should be 
taught to dramatize the rhyme. This dramatization de- 
velops the children's power to co-operate and it plays an 
important role in unfolding to them, during the early 
stages of their school work, the meaning of language, par- 
ticularly of written language. In addition to this the 
dramatization develops grace of movement and calls into 
play various muscles, while the rhythm and motion re- 
move from the children's mind the suggestion of work 
and generate in them pleasurable feeling. 

Good-bye Song. The children are now in the right 
attitude of mind and body for the good-bye song. This 
should not be chosen at random; it has an important 
function to perform for the child and this quite apart 
from vocal culture. There are many available songs for 
this exercise in the current kindergarten song books, 
as, for example, 



64 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

1 i 'Tis time to go, how soon it comes, 

We lay our work aside, 

And hasten to our happy homes, 

Where joy and peace abide. 

With footsteps light and voices gay, 

We're going home, so now good-day.' ' 

It is scarcely necessary to call attention to the good 
that may be accomplished by a song like this in properly 
relating the ideas of home and school to each other in 
the minds of the children. 

Prayer, etc. When, at the close of the song, the chil- 
dren kneel in prayer, each is in spirit already by his 
mother's knee and the ideas of the earthly and the heav- 
enly home are linked together in little minds that are 
filled with joyous anticipation. 

Afternoon Program. The similarity of the afternoon 
program to that of the forenoon renders extended com- 
ment unnecessary. It is well that the teacher should greet 
each child as he enters the room and shake hands with him 
before sending him to his seat. After the children have 
found their seats and the opening prayer has been said, 
the teacher's talk may with profit include such topics as 
the home preparation for school. Something may be said 
of the members of the home group who take part in it, of 
the delight of clean hands, etc. This exercise should be 
followed by a motion song containing some home idea, 
such, for example, as the Finger Family : 

This is the mother so kind and dear, 
This is the father with hearty cheer, 
This is the brother so straight and tall, 
This is the sister who plays with her doll, 
And this is the baby, the pet of all. 
Behold the good family, great and small. 



FIRST DAY IN SCHOOL 65 

Such a song as this forms the natural preparation for 
the music lesson, in which the first end to be attained is 
the uniting of the several voices in a single tone. This 
may be followed by such exercises as the call, the ding- 
dong, and the echo, where the imagination of the child 
is called upon to help in these first endeavors to build the 
scale. 

Five minutes devoted to action games similar to those 
of the forenoon session lead to another period of 
seat work, which may consist of a repetition of the 
forenoon's work, or a rug pattern may be substituted for 
the outline of the house. The suggestion may be given 
to the children that they are making these rugs for their 
mothers, thus helping to blend the home and the school 
in the child's consciousness. After the recess and the 
usual sleeping game, the children may be given an exer- 
cise in sense training in which the sense of touch and the 
muscle sense should form the foundation of the work. 
This exercise calls forth individual action, hence the 
teacher must use some ingenuity to hold the interest of 
the entire class during the period. The drill should move 
rapidly. One child at a time may be blindfolded while 
a second child places in his hand various objects, such 
as familiar toys, balls, pencils, fruit, etc., and the teacher 
should ask the blindfolded child to name each object. 
The children should be taught to run to and from their 
seats ; this serves the double purpose of furnishing valu- 
able physical exercise and a pleasing variation in what 
may easily become a monotonous drill. When the chil- 
dren grow accustomed to this work, several groups may 
be kept moving at the same time. 



66 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 

In the seat work which constitutes the next exercise 
on the program, the children may be given triangles of 
colored paper out of which they should be taught to 
make borders from patterns given to them on the black- 
board. Their natural delight in color and the ease with 
which they can do this work are among the reasons which 
may be assigned for placing this exercise at the end of the 
day's work at a time when the child may be growing tired. 
Moreover, it will leave a pleasant impression with the 
child which will serve to lighten his footsteps on the 
way to school the following morning. A suitable good 
night song, such as the following, will help to strengthen 
the pleasurable associations with the idea of school in 
the minds of all the children: 

Jesus, gentle Shepherd, hear me, 
Bless thy little lamb to-night. 
Through the darkness be thou near me, 
Keep me safe till morning light. 

Prayer should, of course, conclude the exercises of the 
day. 

Neither reading, writing nor spelling have found 
place in the program Suggested for the child's first day 
in school. The reasons for these omissions are obvious. 
The first thing to be accomplished for the child is to 
make him feel at home in his new surroundings, and 
written language, in any of its aspects, is foreign to 
his home experience and presents too few points of con- 
tact with his mental content to render it a desirable 
exercise for him on his first day in school. It must be the 
teacher's first endeavor to quicken into activity the men- 



FIEST DAY IN SCHOOL 67 

tal content which the child has previously gained through 
his activity in the home. 

After he has grown sufficiently familiar with the 
school environment to give him freedom in the use of 
his faculties, the work of teaching reading and writing 
should be taken up. A beginning in a small way may 
usually be made on the third or fourth day. In fact, 
the first day's program must be modified in many ways 
before the end of the first week. Such items as the 
principal 's talk, the greeting game and the assignment 
of places should be dropped after the first morning, 
while reading, writing, drawing, spelling, and dramatic 
games must soon find place on the program. Moreover, 
where the class consists of forty pupils or over, it will 
be found expedient, at an early date, to divide the chil- 
dren into two groups. While one of these groups is 
occupied at the blackboard with drawing, reading, spell- 
ing, etc., the other group will be doing seat work. 



CHAPTER VIII 

SENSE TRAINING IN THE FIRST GRADE 

In another chapter the thought material suitable to 
the work of the primary grades will be dealt with. While 
the child is quietly growing into a knowledge of written 
language his mind must not be allowed to starve. Dur- 
ing these years, more than in any of the subsequent 
years of his life, his growing mental life demands great 
fundamental truths, but his limitations make it neces- 
sary that these truths be presented to him in a form 
suited to his undeveloped powers. Above all, his atten- 
tion must not be allowed to center upon the trival things 
around him, much less upon the sterile instrumentalities 
and forms of thought. Of him, more than of his elders, 
it is true that the letter killeth. His senses must be 
quickened to perceive the beauties of nature and the 
details of her marvellous adjustments, and he must be 
taught to see both himself and the Creator mirrored 
in the phenomena that hold his senses captive and de- 
light his imagination. The resourcefulness of the 
primary teacher is in constant requisition. She must be 
ever ready to make use of the materials which the school 
and the environment of the children afford. 

The Milkweed Lesson 

In the late Fall, for example, the Milkweed Lesson 
may be given in the first grade. The teacher should 
provide herself with colored pictures of the milkweed 



SENSE TEAINING 69 

in blossom and of the milkweed bearing its ripe pods, 
and she should possess one or more of the ripe pods. 
She should then proceed to question the children and 
seek to draw from them the names of any objects of 
particular interest they may have recently acquired in 
their homes. Some of the children will mention their 
toys, others will speak of their dolls or of their living 
pets, but when, as usually happens, some one of the 
children tells about a new baby in his home, everything 
else fades into insignificance for the time being. The 
child should then be led to tell about the baby and how 
he is dressed in long white clothes and laid in a cradle. 
Then the teacher shows the children the picture of the 
milkweed in blossom and the picture of the milkweed 
bearing its pods. She shows them the milkweed babies in 
their cradle, and suggests that there are so many of them 
in the cradle that they can't grow, and the children are 
questioned as to what will happen to them. If necessary, 
the teacher helps them to the answer that they are scat- 
tered by the wind. The child that makes the discovery is 
asked to play the part of the wind and with his breath he 
blows the winged seeds about the room. The children are 
told of how they fall in the dust and are covered up by the 
rain and warmed by the sunbeams until they grow into 
milkweeds, like their mother. This lesson will form the 
remote preparation for the story of The Three Little Milk- 
weed Sisters which they will study in the beginning of 
the second grade. It awakens the children's interest 
in the milkweeds and causes them to notice their growth 
by the wayside or in vacant lots during the following 
spring. It prepares their minds also for the reception 
of many biological truths, such as the dispersion of 



70 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMAKY METHODS 

the winged seeds by the wind, etc., and it offers oppor- 
tunity for word drills in a vocabulary which they are 
building up in preparation for the first lesson of their 
book. 

A Fbuit Lesson 

A little later a fruit lesson should be given which may 
be conducted as follows: 

Sense Training. On the teacher's desk there is a 
covered basket of fruit containing some such collection 
as apples, pears, lemons, oranges and grapes. The chil- 
dren should be lined up with their hands behind them 
while the teacher allows each child to touch the various 
fruits and name them to the class. When the correct 
name is given, the teacher should praise the child. The 
fruit is then placed in the hand of each child and 
he is allowed to exercise upon the various specimens 
the muscle sense and the sense of pressure as well as 
the sense of touch and he is required to name the fruits 
before being allowed to look at them. The fruit is then 
divided and given to the children to eat. 

Children accustomed to eat these fruits will usually 
be found to possess mental pictures of them in which 
the gustatory and the visual elements predominate and 
in which the other sensory elements are but vaguely 
represented. The exercise here referred to is calculated 
to remedy this defect and to bring out and strengthen 
the other sensory elements. They will thereafter 
possess mental images of these fruits that are rich in 
detail and strong in their tendency to enter into com- 
bination with other cognitive elements that are already 



SENSE TKAINING 71 

in the mind or that may enter it subsequently. The 
value of exercises conducted along these lines was 
pointed out many years ago by Dr. Seguin, and through 
their employment great advances have been made dur- 
ing the last two or three decades throughout Germany 
and England in rescuing from their unfortunate condi- 
tion multitudes of children that would otherwise be re- 
tarded, and eliminated from the school in a few years. 
During the past few years some beginnings of a similar 
good work have been made in this country. 

When such exercises are properly conducted and re- 
peated a few times, all the sensory qualities found in 
the perception of the fruits will be so strengthened that 
any one of them may, on occasion, become the dominant 
element in the representation of the several fruits. The 
value of these sense representations as units in the up- 
building of mental structures is correspondingly en- 
hanced. 

Assimilation. The exercise, of course, should not end 
with the endeavor to develop the sensory images. The 
children should be led to utilize these images at once in 
many other ways. After they have eaten the fruit the 
teacher should endeavor to ascertain how many of them 
have seen these fruits grow. She should lead them to tell 
all they know about fruit trees and orchards and grape 
vines. The differences between trees and vines should be 
brought out and illustrated with colored crayons on the 
blackboard or by means of colored pictures. 

Imagination. The children may then be called to 
the blackboard and shown the picture of an apple tree 
with a green apple hanging to one of its topmost branches. 
Under the tree there should be a picture of a child look- 



72 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

ing up at the apple. When the children have all recog- 
nized the pictured apple, the teacher should write the 
word apple on the blackboard and explain to the children 
that it stands for the apple just as the picture on the 
board stands for the apple. And the same procedure 
should be followed in developing other words, such as 
tree, apple-tree, stem, leaves, sun, etc. 

The imaginations of the children are exercised in sym- 
pathy with the child who is trying to get the apple from 
the tree. She is supposed to call upon her friend, the 
little bird sitting on the branch of the tree. He comes 
to her aid and the teacher now sketches the bird endeavor- 
ing to release the apple by picking at its stem. He fails 
in his efforts to release the apple because the stem 
is too hard for his little bill to cut. The stem of an apple 
is passed around to the children so that they may see 
how hard it is. After this the child appeals to another 
one of her friends, the sun, which is also sketched on the 
board by the teacher. The children are asked how the 
sun is going to help the child; and after they have 
puzzled over the matter and exercised their imaginations 
on it for a minute or two, the teacher, with red chalk, 
illustrates the effect of the sun's rays in ripening the 
apple. Finally, the child calls upon the wind to come to 
her aid. This is a signal for a drill in physical culture. 
Some of the children play the part of the wind and find 
exercise for their lungs, while the other children, with 
swaying arms and bodies, imitate the movements of the 
tree under the strong breeze until the apple is supposed 
to be shaken from the branch. 

Results. It does not tax one's imagination to see how 
this lesson prepares the minds of the children for several 



SENSE TRAINING 



73 



stories in First Book in which the apple tree figures so 
prominently, and particularly for the story of May's 
birthday, in the Second Book. It does not anticipate 
these lessons or take from them any of their novelty, 
but it develops sense imagery and imagination as well 
as the necessary vocabulary. 

Omitting for the present the consideration of the motor 
element in this lesson, it will readily be seen that in the 
first exercise the children's percepts of the various fruits 
are developed. Sensory elements that heretofore have 
been present in a vague way in their consciousness 
are brought out and strengthened. Direct experience in 
the case of several subordinate sensations is substituted 
for memory pictures. 

In the second exercise, the strengthened percepts are 
correlated with other cognitive elements previously ac- 
quired by the children; their summer vacations in the 
country are recalled; their experiences in plucking fruit 
from the trees and vines are revived ; the likenesses and 
differences between the various fruits are developed and 
some knowledge is acquired of their various modes of 
growth. 

In the third exercise, the imagination of the children 
is called into play and new combinations of the previous 
mental contents are secured. Their information con- 
cerning processes in nature, such as the effects of the 
sun's rays and of the wind on the ripening fruits, is 
enlarged. Written names for the apple, for some of its 
parts, and for other objects associated with it in their 
minds are developed and linked to primary percepts. 

Thus, in a single brief period, the children, acting in 
obedience to natural laws, enlarge their stores of actual 
information and improve the quality of some of the in- 



74 TEACHERS MANUAL* OF PRIMARY METHODS 

formation which they previously possessed. They build 
up new thought combinations and become acquainted, to 
some extent at least, with the play of certain natural 
forces in their environment. The pleasurable affective 
state which is maintained throughout the lesson keeps 
their minds constantly active and in a receptive attitude. 
Their imagination, as well as their senses, is exercised 
in a healthy manner and trained to act along right lines. 
In addition to all this, they make the acquaintance of 
several written words and improve their use of spoken 
language, besides getting an exercise in physical culture 
which is calculated to impart strength to their muscles 
and grace to their movements. 

Sensory Motor Drills. The individual laboratory 
method so generally employed at present in secondary 
and technical education, as well as the experimental 
methods of the investigator in the fields of natural science, 
rests on the same fundamental principles as does the 
method of primary work here outlined. In each case, 
the endeavor is to confine perception to its primary func- 
tion, to substitute direct sensory experience wherever 
possible for recall images and to give a vivid mental 
picture of the phenomena in question, before attempting 
to build up in the mind the formulae through the aid of 
which such phenomena may be manipulated in working 
out larger results. 

Sensory drills must be varied from day to day. From 
the very nature of the case, they do not readily bear 
repetition. The aim of the teacher in the first grade 
should be to secure freedom and reasonable accuracy in 
the larger bodily movements. The sand table may be 
used with good results, among which may be numbered 



SENSE TKAINING 75 

the children's preparation for modeling, an exercise 
which should be taken np systematically in the second 
grade. Cutting and folding paper and other simple ex- 
ercises in construction tend to secure the same results. 
The motor training involved will also prove helpful in 
teaching the children to draw and to write. 

Deawing 

Drawing and penmanship will receive a fuller treat- 
ment elsewhere, but the development which is demanded 
by these arts springs from a foundation of sensory motor 
training which must be laid in the first year at school. 
The first step should be the attainment of control over 
the larger bodily movements. The attention of the child 
must not be allowed to rest upon the movement of his 
wrist or fingers until the correct movement of the arm 
has been established; hence, in his first work at the 
blackboard, all his fingers should be locked on a crayon 
so as to use its side on the board instead of its point; 
in this way' all digital movements are shut out and the 
arm alone is brought into play. The movement should 
be a large one; circles or flowing curves should be at- 
tempted before straight lines. In these early muscular 
exercises, rhythm is a very important factor and should 
not be neglected by the teacher. Some simple music 
should help the child at the blackboard. At this time 
ambidextrous movements may be established by most chil- 
dren with ease ; particularly where the drawing is being 
done rhythmically. The exercise has several values apart 
from that of drawing. It helps to give the mind control 
over the movements of the left hand, and this will prove 



76 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMAKY METHODS 

valuable later on in training for instrumental music, as 
well as in other ways. 

These rhythmic exercises have a high value in their 
effect upon the subsequent musical training. Time and 
rhythm are so fundamental in music that unless they are 
organized in the child's body as well as in his mind, he 
is likely to be at a disadvantage when he begins his 
formal study of music. 



PART II 

PRIMARY TEXT-BOOKS 

While it is true that the primary teacher is not often 
called upon to write text-books, nevertheless, it is a mat- 
ter of no little importance that she should understand 
the principles embodied in the text-book which she is 
called upon to use. If method should govern her work, 
it is obviously more important that method should govern 
the structure of the text-book which is to be placed in the 
hands of the children ; hence we present here a discussion 
of the methods and aims of the series of primary text- 
books which we have prepared for our Catholic schools. 



CHAPTER IX 

TEACHER AND TEXT-BOOK 

The teacher is, of course, the most important factor in 
any schoolroom ; if she is a failure, the rest matters 
little. This is true throughout the whole educational 
system, but it is probably true in a larger measure in the 
primary grade than elsewhere, for there the children are 
least able to help themselves. From this, however, it 
must not be concluded that the text-book is an unimpor- 
tant matter in the primary grades. It has its own func- 
tion to perform and when it is vicious or when it is con- 
structed along wrong lines, it will inflict injuries that 
even the best teachers will be unable to remedy. Any 
study of the primary grades or the methods to be em- 
ployed in them would, consequently, be seriously deficient 
unless it took into account the nature and functions of the 
text-books to be used. 

Selection of the Text-book 

The primary teacher does not often have a voice in 
selecting the text-books to be used. From one point of 
view this seems unfair ; since she will be held responsible 
for the results achieved, it would appear but proper that 
she should be allowed the choice of the means. The work- 
man should be allowed to select his tools; and the text- 
book is one of the most important tools to be placed at 
the disposal of the primary teacher. However, there is 
another side to the case. Children move from school to 



TEACHER AND TEXT-BOOK 79 

school and as a consequence no little hardship would be 
experienced were they required to meet each new teach- 
er 's choice in the matter of text-books. The economics 
of the situation has helped to bring about the adoption 
of uniform text-books throughout the school system of 
the city or the diocese. 

Again, there must be continuity in the child's work as 
he passes from grade to grade, and this would be ren- 
dered difficult if not impossible if each teacher were per- 
mitted to choose her text-book without reference to the 
work of the other grades. 

There is another reason for withholding the selection 
of the text-book from the teacher, that deserves more 
consideration than it has hitherto received. The results 
achieved by the school must depend in large measure 
upon the nature of the text-books used ; and this whether 
we consider the thought-material which is supplied or the 
method in which it is presented. The selection of a text- 
book, therefore, is a matter of supreme importance and 
it calls for the highest pedagogical skill available and 
for the wisdom that results from ripe scholarship and 
wide experience. In the determination of the text-books 
to be used, the teachers of a city or of a diocese might 
well be consulted in their corporate capacity; but in a 
matter of such importance, expert skill whenever obtain- 
able should be brought to bear upon the problem. And 
those upon whom the responsibility rests should not be 
content with a bald selection of one or another text -book. 
A careful analysis should be presented of the various 
text-books competing in the field and careful reasoning 
should bear out the choice determined upon. 



80 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PEIMARY METHODS 

Much attention has frequently been given to the selec 
tion of histories, geographies, etc., for the higher grades, 
but it has not infrequently happened that the primary 
text-books were determined upon without study and 
solely in view of the prices at which the books could be 
furnished. A difference of a cent or two a volume fre- 
quently determined the choice, as if the conviction was 
entertained that it made little or no difference so long as 
the book was a first or a second reader; whereas, there 
is no stage in the child's development in which he is more 
dependent upon the text-book or in which its qualities 
affect him more intimately in mind and character. 

Knowledge of the Text-book 

The construction of a text-book for the use of little 
children appears to be a simple matter and the thought- 
less have so regarded it. Is the print large and clear? 
Are the pictures such as would interest the little ones? 
Are there pictures of children and toys, and is there a 
goodly sprinkling of brilliantly colored chromos? Two 
minutes suffices to find the answers to these questions. 
But the knowledge of a text-book of which we speak, is 
quite a different matter and may well challenge the 
closest attention of the most profound student of 
pedagogy. 

Correct Use of Text-Booh. The teacher must know her 
text-book thoroughly if she is to achieve good results 
through its use. The finest instrument in the hands of a 
bungler is of little value. The teacher should have a 
clear grasp of the aims of the text-book and of the means 
by which the author sought to attain them. If she is de- 



TEACHEE AND TEXT-BOOK 81 

ficient in this regard, she cannot use the book properly 
and may succeed in doing no inconsiderable harm to the 
child-mind that during this stage depends upon her so 
completely. 

Unity of Method. The teacher must follow a clearly de- 
fined method if she is to achieve satisfactory results. In 
like manner, any text-book worth while must be built in 
accordance with a definite method. Now, it is of the high- 
est importance that there be the closest agreement be- 
tween the method embodied in the text-book and that fol- 
lowed by the teacher. Where this is not the case, even 
though the divergent methods be each thoroughly good in 
its way, the conflict is likely to defeat both the teacher 
and the text-book. It is another instance of a house 
divided against itself. The best of teachers will labor in 
vain to secure a well-knit and systematically developed 
mental content in the children of the first grade, if she is 
compelled to use a first reader constructed solely for the 
purpose of word drills. A book in which the thought is 
wholly lacking in unity, in which the selections are un- 
related to each other in all except size of type and 
triviality of theme, can scarcely fail to leave with the 
child an abiding impression that books are sterile things 
as far as content is concerned ; and it tends to produce 
in him a habit of looking at the words and of 
neglecting the thoughts. A similar result is achieved 
through the use of primary books constructed on the 
erroneous assumption that phonics is the proper means 
through which the child may secure a mastery of the 
printed vocabulary. The aim in all the phonic work which 
undertakes to develop in the child the power of word 
getting is to relate the new word forms with the old. The 
thought element is not included directly in the process. 



82 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

The legitimate result of this method is the production of 
what is known, in adults, as the proof-reader habit — a 
habit in which the mind is occupied in looking at the 
word form to the exclusion, for the time being, of the 
word thought. The former method aims at engraving the 
words on the visual area of the brain through frequent 
repetition; the latter aims at achieving a similar result 
through the much more facile process of associating the 
word forms with those already established in the child's 
mind. Any result that might be hoped for from the legiti- 
mate use of either of these text -books would certainly be 
defeated if the teacher employed the former text-book for 
phonic drills, or the phonic text-book for word drills. 

Both of these methods are in flagrant conflict with the 
psychology of education. The thought is more important 
for the child than the word. The word is but a means to 
an end, and it should be the chief concern of the primary 
teacher to build up orderly thought-complexes in the 
minds of the children. Of course words must be learned, 
but the word forms must be kept in their proper place and 
that is as a means to an end. The aim must be to drop 
them as soon as possible into the indirect field of mental 
vision where they will continue to function subconsciously 
by calling the associated thought up into the focus of 
consciousness in the mind of the reader or where, as in 
the mind of the speaker or the writer, it may function in 
governing the motor areas involved in expression. 

A primary book to achieve this end must be constructed 
on lines which would render it worse than useless in the 
hands of a teacher who insists upon using the phonic 
method in word getting. From word to word is the motto 
in phonetic work ; from thought to word is the only per- 



TEACHEK AND TEXT-BOOK 83 

missible pathway in the context method. The Catholic 
Education Series was constructed on the context method 
and it should not be used by teachers who insist upon 
following the word method or the phonic method in teach- 
ing primary reading. As this manual, however, is in- 
tended primarily for teachers using this series of ele- 
mentary text-books, the method advocated in its pages is 
the context method; and, since the teacher must thor- 
oughly understand the text-books in order to use them for 
the attainment of the high results which they are calcu- 
lated to attain, an analysis of these books will be pre- 
sented here. 

Remedying Defects. Among the reasons which should 
lead every primary teacher to make a close study of the 
text-book which she is asked to use, may be mentioned 
that of discovering the defects of the book. Such dis- 
covery should lead to two valuable results: first, if the 
teacher knows the defects, she may be able to remedy 
them, to some extent at least; and secondly, by writing 
to the author and calling his attention to the defects in 
question, she will be able to render a service to all the 
children who are using the text-book. Finally, a knowl- 
edge of the available text-books will enable the primary 
teacher so to place the matter before those in authority 
as to secure the selection of the best books. Frequently 
those in a position to pass upon this question finally, de- 
pend wholly upon the representations of primary teachers 
in reaching a decision. 



CHAPTER X 

THE FUNCTIONS OF PEIMAEY TEXT-BOOKS 

A good text-book in any part of the field of education 
must be constructed with definite ends in view. These 
ends will differ in accordance with the phase of mental 
development with which it is supposed to deal, and in ac- 
cordance with the nature of the subject-matter of which 
it treats. Primary text-books designed for use in our 
Catholic schools should perform the three following func- 
tions: 1) they should present the proper thought mate- 
rial; 2) they should present the material in the correct 
sequence; 3) they should present it in a form suited to 
the child's power of assimilation. 

Thought Material 

The determination of the thought material to be pre- 
sented to the child during the three years ' primary work 
in which the foundations of his mental life are being laid, 
in which the most enduring habits of his life are being 
formed, and in which his ideals are being built up, is a 
matter of the utmost moment. In the Social and Indus- 
trial Science Series of primary text-books, the thought 
material is taken wholly from the life and times of Pleis- 
tocene Man, the theory being that the thought material 
suitable to the child of six is such as might be supposed 
to have nourished the minds of tree-dwelling ancestors 
of man. In the second year the material takes its coloring 
from the life of the cave-dwellers, etc. The result of 
such a choice of material is unavoidably the production 
of the crudest form of materialism in the children. The 



PEIMARY TEXT-BOOKS 85 

thought material in the Eskimo stories and in many of 
the primary readers which are in present use in our pub- 
lic schools is drawn largely from animal life. There is 
nothing in these books that points heavenward ; they are 
lacking in idealism. They are consistent in schools 
where the belief is entertained that man is only a 
beast, albeit the most highly developed of beasts. Some 
of the primary books which pass for Catholic books are 
scarcely better. In one primary reader in wide use in 
our Catholic schools at present, there are only four 
abortive attempts at introducing the religious element. 
As far as the thought material goes, apart from these 
few pages, it is quite as pagan as anything to be found 
in the non-Christian schools. The struggle for existence 
and survival of the fittest occupies the first place in the 
first reader, and the subsequent sketches are concerned 
chiefly about animals and self. The only redeeming fea- 
ture about the book is, that the content, while in itself of 
an objectionable character misses doing its full measure 
of harm through its want of organization. The book is 
evidently intended merely for word drills. To the mind of 
the author, the thought must have been a negligible quan- 
tity. 

The Christian ideal of education demands that the 
child begin his education on the highest plane attained 
by his parents under the guidance of Divine Eevelation 
and with the help of Divine grace. It insists that the core 
of the child's mental life shall be organized out of the 
great fundamental truths of the Christian religion. ' Our 
Holy Father, Pope Pius X, has emphasized this view by 
insisting that the children be prepared at so early a date 
for the reception of the Holy Eucharist. 



86 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 

Much of the work of the primary grades is of neces- 
sity devoted to the instrumentalities of thought. The 
child must be taught his alphabet ; he must learn to read 
and write and spell : and these are such big undertakings 
that we sometimes lose sight of the fact that the child in 
the primary grade, no less than the advanced pupil, soon 
tires of drills. He is in need of mental food suited to his 
capacity, and unless this be supplied to him his mind and 
heart cannot develop normally. Disconnected fragments 
do not meet his needs, for he has not within himself large 
resources nor has he as yet achieved the power to build 
up a unified fabric out of the divergent elements that are 
too frequently offered to him. Our selection of the 
thought material for the Catholic Education Series of 
primary text-books indicates sufficiently what, in our 
judgment, should be the thought material presented. 
There will be found the home idea leading up to the 
heavenly home. There will also be found love, obedience, 
sacrifice, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, etc. In fact, in 
the first grade all the great truths that the child is to 
grow into a full comprehension of later on, must be 
planted in his mind in a germinal form ; and not content 
with planting the seeds of these mighty truths, the teacher 
and the text-book must adopt the necessary means to make 
them germinate and unfold with the development of the 
child's mind. 

Foem 

At the age of six the child has little or no power to deal 
with abstract conceptions and formal definitions. Of 
course he can be made to memorize words whose meaning 



PRIMARY TEXT-BOOKS 87 

wholly escapes him, but in this case an injury is being 
done to him. It is not sufficient, therefore, that the right 
material be presented to a child, it must also be 
presented in the right form. It must be concrete; the 
truths must be put in a setting that will appeal to the 
imagination and that will at the same time easily detach 
itself from the thought. Parables, fairy tales, etc., fur- 
nish the best available means of implanting these truths. 
But it is scarcely necessary to add that in the first grade 
this work should, for the most part, be done orally. As 
far as the text-book goes, it should proceed along these 
lines. Again, an examination of the Catholic Education 
Series of primary text-books will sufficiently illustrate 
our meaning. 

Sequence 

Correct sequence in the presentation of truths is one of 
the indispensable conditions of their assimilation. When 
a mere memory load is the result desired, or when we are 
presenting truths to mature minds, either the logical or 
the chronological sequence may serve our purpose; but 
when we aim at securing the assimilation of truths by un- 
developed minds, none but the psychological sequence 
will prove fruitful. In fact, this is but one application 
of the principle discussed above: namely, that truths 
should be presented in a form suited to the capacity of 
the pupil. If this be done at each successive stage of the 
pupil's development, we have the psychological sequence. 

Germinal Truths. A germinal truth, in a setting which 
is comparatively free from detail and which calls the 
imagination into play, is best suited to the developmental 
phases of early childhood. As the mind approaches ma- 



88 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

turity, it demands more and more detail, fuller illustra- 
tion, exact formulation, and convincing proof. The lim- 
ited apperceptive power of the child-mind demands a 
strict observance of the psychological sequence in the 
order in which the different truths are presented. The 
truths first presented should be such as will assist in the 
apperception of the subsequent truth. If this sequence is 
not observed, it is difficult to avoid the mere memory load 
and it is quite impossible to render the truths in question 
functional either in the acquisition of subsequent knowl- 
edge, or in the shaping of the child's character to Chris- 
tian ideals. 

Time. Correct sequence alone, however, will not suf- 
fice. Sufficient time must be given to let the truth be as- 
similated and rendered fecund. It is the part of wisdom 
to make haste slowly. One truth that is thoroughly mas- 
tered and rendered functional in the child's mind is of 
more value in shaping his life and in his subsequent 
mental development than any number of memorized 
formulae. 

Word Selection. These principles hold as true in the 
child's acquisition of written language as they do in his 
thought development. The right word, presented to the 
child in a way that he can comprehend it, and the render- 
ing of this word, once acquired, functional in the acquisi- 
tion of subsequent words, is the natural and economic 
mode of procedure. Selecting the first written vocab- 
ulary according to the length of the words or the number 
of syllables which they may contain, is a process that 
finds no justification in psychology. A big word may be 
easier for a child to learn than a little one. Its suitable- 
ness must be determined on other grounds. 



PBIMAEY TEXT-BOOKS 89 

Fundamental Truths. The same reasoning applies to 
the thought material given to the child. Some teachers 
and the writers of certain text-books seem to have la- 
bored under the conviction that great truths are wholly 
unsuited to little minds. They talk to him about his 
toys and his clothes and his pets and childish things 
instead of things suitable for the child mind. Such 
truths as the Creation, the Trinity, the Incarnation, Grace 
and Eedemption, seem at first sight to be so far removed 
from the content of the child mind as to preclude the 
possibility of their being assimilated or rendered func- 
tional by it. Indeed, these truths seem to be beyond 
the reach of all but mature minds of the highest order 
of intelligence, and even to these they remain mysteries. 
It will be found, however, that the child 's mind will read- 
ily lay hold of these truths in the measure of its capacity, 
provided they be given to him in the right form and in 
the correct sequence. 

A Histological Analogy. The problem confronting us 
in teaching great fundamental truths to little children 
has many points of resemblance to that which confronts 
the histologist in preparing a section of animal tissue for 
examination under his miscroscope. The key to the solu- 
tion in the one case as in the other is found in the proper 
sequence. Neither problem is difficult, once we have de- 
cided where to begin, what sequence to follow, and where 
we wish the process to terminate. If we examine the 
histologist J s problem a little more closely, we shall find 
that the tissue to be examined consists of some twenty- 
five per cent of solid matter, built up into an elaborate 
structure of exquisite delicacy, the interstices of which 
are filled with the water of organization. The tissue as 



90 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMABY METHODS 

a whole is opaque and before it can be examined under 
the microscope, a section of about one-ten-thousandth of 
an inch in thickness must be cut from it and mounted on 
glass in a transparent medium. In cutting the section 
from the tissue, none of the delicate structures must be 
disturbed. The relative positions of all its parts must be 
preserved intact; otherwise, the section, when mounted, 
will be valueless. 

To do this successfully, the water in the tissue must be 
replaced by paraffin, which will support the delicate 
structures and keep them in position while the section is 
being mounted. But how is this exchange of the water 
for the wax to be effected! The dimensions of the cavi- 
ties in the tissue are such as to preclude all mechanical 
appliances. Moreover, the water is held in the tissue 
by a molecular force which is not readily overcome. The 
water cannot be removed to make room for the wax, nor 
will the water and the wax blend so that both may be 
present in the tissue at the same time. The first step 
towards the solution of this problem consists in finding 
a substance that will readily blend with the water in the 
tissues, a substance which will not injure the delicate 
structures that it is desired to examine. Now, there are 
many substances which will blend with water. Which 
one of these shall we select! Sulphuric acid, for example, 
will readily blend with water, but it would attack and 
destroy the tissue. Pure alcohol has a strong affinity for 
water, but if the fresh tissue be placed in it, the osmotic 
currents set up will be so violent as to destroy all the 
delicate structures. This defect, however, is easily over- 
come. The histologist places the tissue in a dilute solu- 



PKIMABY TEXT-BOOKS 91 

tion of alcohol in water and then passes it up through a 
graded series of 30%, 50%, 75% to 95% alcohol. 

Principle Involved. The first part of the problem has 
now been solved. The water of organization in the tissue 
has been replaced by alcohol, but we are apparently no 
better off than when we started, for alcohol will not sup- 
port the structures while they are being cut, and neither 
will it blend with wax. Nevertheless, progress has been 
made. We are nearer to the solution of our problem 
and, moreover, we have learned how one substance may 
be made to replace another in the minute interstices of 
the tissue. With this knowledge to guide us, it will be 
comparatively easy to find another substance that will 
replace the alcohol in the tissue. Bergamot, cedar oil, 
or any other essential oil will serve our purpose. They 
may easily be made to replace the alcohol, nor will they 
injure the tissue. Moreover, the oil and alcohol blend so 
gently that a graded series of oils will not be needed. But 
when the essential oil has completely replaced the alcohol, 
we do not seem to be any nearer the desired goal, for the 
oil will not support the tissue while it is being cut and 
mounted. In this respect it is in no wise superior to 
the water or to the alcohol. But oil will blend with melted 
wax or paraffin, and if the oil-saturated tissue be placed 
in a vessel of melted paraffin, the paraffin will gradually 
take the place of the essential oil, and when the paraffin 
is cooled, it will support every element of the tissue while 
it is being cut and mounted. 

Transition Stages. Looking back over the processes 
through which the histologist has found the solution of 
his problem, it will be observed that the essential oil, 
while it readily blends with paraffin, will not blend with 



92 TEACHEKS MANUAL. OF PBIMABY METHODS 

water, so it was necessary to find a medium which 
would readily blend with both the oil and the water. 
Such a medium was found in alcohol. Or if we approach 
the matter from the opposite direction, alcohol blends 
with the water of organization in the tissue, but alcohol 
will not blend with paraffin, and so it was necessary to 
employ an essential oil to bridge the chasm between the 
irreconcilable elements, water and wax. 

In the procedure outlined above, we have a picture of 
what takes place in all developmental processes, whether 
mental or organic. An insect's egg, for example, first 
becomes a grub. The grub is then converted into a 
pupa from which it finally emerges as a moth. Life 
does not build its final structures directly; the final 
stage of every living organism is attained through a 
longer or shorter series of reconstructions, and what is 
true of the temple of life, is equally true of thought, the 
dweller within the temple. 

Up to the twelfth or fourteenth year the child-mind 
passes through a series of reconstructions in which the 
truths that have been acquired in one stage, are 
worked over and presented in a new light and with new 
correlations in the subsequent phase. The ultimate truth 
is seldom or never attained directly. 

In so far as the teacher undertakes to guide the men- 
tal development of her pupils, she should select the 
truths to be presented, with direct reference to the de- 
velopmental process. She must seek in every case the 
truths that will readily blend with the content of the 
child's consciousness and that will at the same time so 
modify it that the truth to be subsequently presented 
may be readily assimilated. She must begin by appealing 



PKIMAEY TEXT-BOOKS 93 

to the child's instincts and lead him step by step to the 
clear formulation of the great truths on which Christian 
civilization rests. 

COKEELATION 

One of the most important functions of a primary text- 
book is the help which it gives the teacher in correlating 
the various truths presented to the child. The use of 
separate text-books by the child for the various subjects 
taught in the first or second grade is a grave mistake. 
Unity is the child's most urgent need at this period of 
his development, and the very fact that the subject is 
presented through the medium of a different text-book 
helps to keep the subject-matter from blending and ren- 
ders it almost impossible for the teacher to secure proper 
correlation. Beading and spelling, aesthetics, institu- 
tions and religion, natural science and physical culture, 
should all be so intimately blended in the work of the first 
two grades that it is extremely unadvisable to divide 
up the matter among separate text-books. The want of 
correlation and properly developed unity is the source 
of much of the evil that is prevalent to-day in our pri- 
mary class-rooms. The child's first book should not be a 
picture book, a song book, a reader, a speller, a nature 
study book, or a catechism, nor should he be given such 
books as aids to his mental development. What his con- 
dition demands is a single book in which all these things 
are included, and not merely included between the covers 
and arranged one after the other, but in which the ger- 
minal truths from these various fields are blended and 
organized into a single symmetrical and developing body 
of knowledge. 



94 TEACHERS MANUAL, OF PRIMARY METHODS 

The preparation of a primary text-book is consequently 
a matter of extreme difficulty. It demands of its author 
a wide academic knowledge together with high peda- 
gogical skill; for without such an equipment it would be 
wholly impossible to select the right material and to 
organize it properly for the child of six. An examination 
of the primary text-books in current use reveals at once 
the lamentable conditions prevailing, owing to the fact 
that those who undertook to prepare primary text-books 
lacked the requisite mental equipment. 

Name of First Booh. In our Catholic schools the fail- 
ure to secure proper co-ordination is attended with conse- 
quences graver far than in the public school, owing to the 
fact that our schools were called into being for the sole 
purpose of securing the proper correlation of religion 
with the other subjects of the curriculum. It is scarcely 
necessary to add that this is wholly impossible where 
religious instruction is conveyed through a catechism 
to the children of the primary grades. This tends to 
isolate religion from all the growing life of the child and 
to produce the very evil which it was sought to remedy 
by the erection and maintenance of Catholic schools. Ee- 
ligion should, of course, be taught to the child from the 
very first day in school. Moreover, the great central 
truths of religion should form the nucleus of the child's 
developing mind and heart. Everything else that we 
teach him should be presented in its relation to religion. 
Hence, the name of the child's first book should not be a 
reader, which connotes a drill book in calling words and 
sentences, nor should it be a nature study book, which 
serves to make natural science the ruling principle of 
the budding life before us. Religion being the central 



PEIMAEY TEXT-BOOKS 95 

and the dominant element in the instruction which should 
be given to the children in these primary grades, might 
well lend its name to the book if it is to have any other 
name than A Child's First Book or A Child's Second 
Book. 

The Principle of Correlation. Owing to the growth 
of the biological sciences, and under the influence of the 
doctrine of evolution, the principle of correlation has 
recently taken on a new meaning. Its connotation has 
ceased to be wholly morphological ; it has, in fact, become 
predominantly physiological. The principle of correla- 
tion as it is now currently accepted in the field of educa- 
tion demands that each new thought element be related 
to the previous content of the mind, not along structural 
lines alone, but in a relationship of reciprocal activity. 
In the name of this principle, the teacher insists that each 
new thought element taken into the mind shall be so re- 
lated to the previous mental content as to shed its light 
upon every item of previously assimilated knowledge, and 
that in turn it shall be illumined and rendered intelligible 
by the light which falls upon it from each truth that holds 
a place in the structure of the growing mind. 

In the development of the mind as in the development 
of organic life, the old teleology is reversed : the organ is 
now commonly regarded as the result of function instead 
of its antecedent. And so in the field of education, we 
no longer rest content with mere erudition. We are dis- 
satisfied with methods of education, the highest aim of 
which is properly to ticket items of information and sys- 
tematically to store them in the memory for future use. 
The mind, we are told, is developed by each new truth that 
functions in it; whereas, those truths that are not func- 



96 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 

tional, however valuable they may be in the adult, im- 
pede development and menace the health of the child- 
mind. 

A demonstration of the truth of the principle of corre- 
lation is scarcely necessary to-day. In theory, at least, 
little or no objection to it will be encountered. Of course, 
the principle has not always found its way into the school- 
room; but this fact forms no exception to the rela- 
tion which too frequently exists between theory and prac- 
tice in matters educational. Owing to the prevalence of 
stereotyped methods and of the reliance which teachers 
habitually place upon them while their minds remain im- 
pervious to educational principles, we frequently find 
practice lagging lamentably behind the demands of prin- 
ciples which have gained world-wide acceptance. All this, 
however, should not prevent us from employing every 
available means to bring our practice into conformity 
with principle, and in the matter of the principle of cor- 
relation, the primary text-book should be of the highest 
assistance. 

Curriculum. The principle of correlation should find 
a three-fold application in every school. It should enter 
into the structure of the curriculum ; it should govern the 
organization of the materials in each subject; and it 
should find a clear embodiment in the text-books used. 
No branch of knowledge can be successfully mastered 
as an isolated system of truth. The results of such 
attempts are invariably non-functional memory-loads 
which impede rather than promote mental development. 
Physics without mathematics would be incomprehensible, 
and mathematics apart from its application in astron- 
mony and in the other sciences, would lose most of its 



PEIMABY TEXT-BOOKS 97 

value. What value would attach to geography if studied 
apart from history and economics? And who would 
undertake to teach history to students who knew nothing 
of geography? In the construction of the curriculum 
the various branches must be correlated at every step, 
otherwise failure will be the inevitable result. 

Religion and Secular Knowledge. In the light of this 
truth, what may be expected of a curriculum in which all 
the secular branches are presented in their mutual cor- 
relations and from which is completely excluded religion, 
the element which should be the center of the entire sys- 
tem of truth that is being unfolded in the growing mind ? 
Both religion and the secular branches must inevitably 
sutler by this enforced estrangement; and religion will 
naturally suffer most, since it remains unsupported, 
whereas the secular subjects support each other to no 
inconsiderable extent, even though religion, which should 
give unity and meaning to them, be excluded. 

Owing to the divergence of creed and the conflict among 
the various denominations, the teaching of religion has 
been banished from our public schools. It was believed 
by many that the public schools might, without detri- 
ment to the interests of church or state, confine their 
efforts to the teaching of the secular branches and leave 
religious instruction to the home and to the Sunday 
School. The policy of separation was not at first ani- 
mated by any hostility to religion. Had the men who 
were chiefly responsible for carrying it into effect had an 
adequate comprehension of the Principle of Correlation 
as we now understand it, it is safe to say that they would 
not have consented to its violation in a matter of such 
paramount importance. 



98 TEACHERS MANUAL. OF PRIMARY METHODS 

Exclusion of Religion. Horace Mann was eloquent in 
his protest against the charge that he was driving Chris- 
tianity out of the schools, and he pointed to the history 
of the older civilizations as illustration of the truth that 
no nation can long endure without religion. He was fully 
aware "that Greece fell when her gods became allegories ; 
that Eome grew rotten when her people lost faith; that, 
in every one of the dead nations, faith was the soul of 
the people, and putrefaction followed its departure. ' ' 

The good intentions of the Father of the Public Schools, 
however, were not sufficient to prevent the disastrous con- 
sequences of banishing religious instruction from the 
position which belonged to it at the center of the curric- 
ulum. Half a century of this mistaken policy has suf- 
ficed to empty the churches, to undermine the home, to 
destroy marriage, to produce an unprecedented increase 
in juvenile crime, and, what is perhaps more menacing 
to society than any of these, to place in the highest posi- 
tions in our school system men who openly teach that 
religion is founded upon fable, and that the normal result 
of its teaching is slavery and mental paralysis, men who 
would have us believe that religion is only an instinct and 
an instinct at that which must not under any circum- 
stances be allowed to develop into a reason system of 
belief, and into a code of morals resting upon super- 
natural religion, or to develop an attitude of mind which 
would look to divine sanctions for natural and super- 
natural law. 

The Lord commended the unjust steward for as much 
as he had done wisely and acted consistently. And so 
we must at least give the French infidels credit for know- 
ing what they were about when they initiated and sue- 



PEIMAEY TEXT-BOOKS 99 

cessfully carried into effect the policy of separating the 
teaching of religion from the teaching of secular subjects 
in the laicization of the schools of France. Protestant 
denominations are at last beginning to recognize the mis- 
take that was made in this country, and they are now en- 
deavoring to retrace their steps. From the beginning 
the Lutherans withdrew themselves from de-Christian- 
ized public schools; the Episcopalians, in many places, 
are beginning to support their own schools. 

The Catholic hierarchy of the United States realized 
this truth from the beginning. In 1840, when the battle 
for state support of denominational schools was being 
fought in New York, Bishop Hughes insisted that the at- 
tempt to teach morality without religion must inevitably 
result in practical infidelity, and that the tendency of 
the public schools, as they were actually conducted, was 
to draw away the mind of the Catholic child from the 
religion of his parents. He based his claim for state sup- 
port of Catholic schools on the fact that in the Catholic 
schools the children received the same education in secu- 
lar branches which they would get in the state schools 
and that together with morality the principles of religion 
were inculcated, which must inevitably "make the rising- 
generation better citizens, more upright in their inter- 
course with their fellow men, more mindful of the sacred 
relations of the marriage state, and more attentive to 
their social duties.' ' 

In the fight which he carried on so gallantly against 
the religious prejudices of his day, Bishop Hughes offered 
a compromise which has actually been tried in more than 
one city of this country during the last half century. To 
meet the constitutional objection against appropriating 



100 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PEIMAKY METHODS 

public funds for the support of any religious organiza- 
tion, Bishop Hughes based the claim of Catholics in this 
matter on their rights as citizens and professed a willing- 
ness to exclude from the curriculum of the Catholic 
schools the positive and explicit teaching of the Catholic 
faith during the regular school hours. This compromise, 
however, was not accepted and the Catholic Church 
throughout the country faced the situation bravely and 
built the magnificent system of parochial schools of 
which the Catholics of America have such good reason 
to be proud and to which the vigorous life of the American 
Church is chiefly due. As we look at it now, we see that 
an all-wise Providence used the malice and the hatred of 
the enemies of the Church to defeat a compromise which 
must inevitably have led to the sapping of the founda- 
tions of the faith of her children. 

The Segregating of Religion. Those responsible for 
our Catholic schools should exercise great care that the 
boon for which Catholics have made so many sacrifices 
and for which the leaders in the cause of Catholic educa- 
tion have fought so manfully, be not lost through the 
mistaken policy of imitating our opponents. When Moses 
was up on Mount Sinai receiving the law from the hands 
of Jehovah, his brother Aaron, consenting to the impor- 
tunity of the multitude, burned incense to a golden calf 
made out of the offerings of the children of Israel. And 
time and again Divine wrath was called down upon this 
stubborn people because of their tendency to imitate the 
nations round about by worshiping in high places. The 
fatuous policy that is sometimes followed in Catholic 
schools of copying the curriculum of the de-Christian- 
ized school and adding to this a half hour's religious in- 



PBIMARY TEXT-BOOKS 101 

struction each day, can scarcely fail to destroy effectively 
the roots of Catholic faith in the lives of children en- 
trusted to these schools by confiding parents. 

Religion and Other School Subjects. It is not sufficient 
that religion be taught in the same building and by the 
same teachers that impart the instruction in the secular 
subjects. The high moral character of the teacher must, 
of course, always be productive of good results in the 
minds of the children, but this, it should be remembered, 
is true of a teacher in the public school no less than of a 
religious teacher in our Catholic schools. The religious 
garb, standing as it does for a life devoted to the public 
welfare, must always be a reminder to the children of the 
unselfish devotion to God and country which should char- 
acterize the citizen and the child of the Church. All of 
this is good, as far as it goes, but it does not go far 
enough; it does not, in any great measure, surpass the 
plan of teaching religion in the home and in the churches 
upon which Horace Mann and his followers relied for 
the preservation of Protestant Christianity, and which 
has been demonstrated to be such a tremendous failure. 

The efficient teaching of religion demands much more 
than catechetical instruction, however ably given, at 
stated times, but unrelated to the other branches of the 
curriculum. Religion to be effectively taught, must be 
interwoven with every item of knowledge presented to the 
child, and it must be the animating principle of every pre- 
cept which he is taught to obey. Without thorough cor- 
relation with the other subjects of the curriculum, religion 
can never take its proper place in the developing life of 
the child. Without this, it remains a mere garment to be 



102 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

donned on Sunday and laid aside on Monday morning 
when the real business of life is taken up. 

The proper correlation of religion with the other sub- 
jects of the curriculum does not imply that religion should 
not be taught as a separate study when the right stage 
of mental development for the systematic teaching of 
separate branches is reached, but it does require that in 
the early phases of the child's development, such as those 
usually found in the first and the second grade, the teach- 
ing of religion be so intimately interwoven with every 
truth that is presented to the child as to leave little room 
for separate formal religious instruction. 

All the vascular bundles of the tree run for a time in a 
single trunk before they diverge into separate branches, 
and so all the branches of the school curriculum, includ- 
ing religion, should run together during the early de- 
velopmental stages of the child-mind. This close corre- 
lation is demanded by the vital unity of the child's mind; 
and where it does not obtain, the mind is injured and the 
branch of knowledge that is taught as a separate system 
fails to be animated by the life-giving currents of mental 
energy. The gardener knows that where a branch is 
grafted into a native stem, preparation must be made to 
secure the continuity of the vascular bundles, so that the 
life-giving sap may flow from the root and stem into the 
engrafted branch. And, in like manner, when super- 
natural religion is to be engrafted upon the native stem 
of fallen human nature, the channels for natural impulse 
must deliver the life-giving energy to the supernatural 
life which was born of water and the Holy Ghost. 

The intimate blending of things separated by polar dis- 
tances occupies a conspicuous place in Catholic theology. 



PEIMARY TEXT-BOOKS 103 

It looks out upon us from the Incarnation; it is present 
on the Cross, where infinite power and human weakness 
seem to dissolve into each other; it lies at the heart of 
the old mystery that has ever confronted the philosopher 
who would reconcile the supreme dominion of God with 
the freedom of the creature. The Catholic should, there- 
fore, find nothing strange in the insistence that, in the 
early years of childhood, religion should be taught in 
intimate association with every item of knowledge that is 
imparted in our primary grades. It must be evident, 
however, that if the principle of correlation is to be given 
its due place in the primary class room, it must be em- 
bodied adequately in the text-book used. Where this is 
not the case, the best efforts of the teacher will prove 
futile ; she will be able, at best, to drag religion into les- 
sons which have been so organized as to leave no room for 
it. In this way more harm than good often results, be- 
cause it tends to make religion an intruder and a usurper 
which every normally-constituted child will grow to dis- 
like. 

In the first and second grades there should not be a 
separate book for religious instruction. The reasons for 
this are many, but the main reason is the impossibility of 
securing proper correlation by this procedure. In the 
book which the child uses, religion should be the center 
of a correlation which not only secures unity among the 
items of knowledge being imparted from day to day, but 
which takes into account the condition of the child when 
he enters the primary room, and extends its unifying in- 
fluence to the whole conscious content built up of instinct 
and experience during the six years of conscious life that 
have preceded the work of this grade. Point of view and 



104 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 

emphasis, rather than subject matter, should separate 
the branches taught in the primary room. The variety 
which the child craves may thus be obtained while the 
meager supply of the apperception masses is used to its 
fullest extent in assimilating the germinal truths of the 
various lines of his social inheritance. 

Instinctive Basis. The child comes into the world with 
a definite body of instinctive tendencies ; and as his brain 
develops, a greater or less number of additional instincts 
make their appearance. Among all these instincts five 
are of paramount importance to the teacher whose 
privilege it is to introduce the child to the school. These 
instincts, which are shared by the higher animals, are 
thoroughly selfish in their aim, and if the work of educa- 
tion were confined to their development along native lines, 
as the prophets of materialistic education would have 
us do, the highest results of the work of education would 
be a race of splendid animals, equipped with the ape and 
tiger methods of the ' ' struggle for existence. ' ' The aim 
of a Christian teacher, however, is to transform these in- 
stincts into their opposites; he undertakes to make un- 
selfishness replace the instinctive selfishness of the child ; 
to lift the child from the biological to the ethical plane ; to 
make social inheritance conform to and control physical 
inheritance: in a word, to engraft supernatural virtues 
upon the native stem of fallen human nature. 

The five fundamental instincts which determine the 
infant's attitude toward his parents are: 1) reliance 
upon his parents for love; 2) reliance upon his parents 
for nourishment; 3) reliance upon his parents for pro- 
tection; 4) reliance upon his parents for remedy; 5) 



PEIMABY TEXT-BOOKS 105 

reliance upon his parents for the models of his imitative 
activity. 

Acting under the impulses of these five instincts, the 
child demands everything and gives nothing. It does not 
concern him what it may cost his parents to love him, 
to feed him, to clothe him and to guard him from danger, 
to rescue him from accident and disease, and to set him 
an example at all times that will turn his feet towards the 
Kingdom of Heaven. In a word, the child, so far as he is 
shaped by instinct, is absolutely selfish. 

Transforming Instincts. The first task of the Chris- 
tian educator should be the transformation of these 
tendencies into their opposites; everything else that he 
may accomplish for the child counts for little except in 
so far as it helps to bring about the transformation of in- 
stincts into virtues which are the bases of Christianity 
in the individual soul. He must teach the child to love 
as well as to demand love, to give as well as to take, to 
protect the weak, to help the needy, and to edify others 
by leading an upright life. Moreover, the child must be 
taught to lift up his eyes to his Heavenly Father and to 
develop towards Him the five-fold attitude which he 
maintains towards his parents. He must count upon His 
love, ask for daily bread, beg for protection against 
temptation and deliverance from evil, and he must keep 
his eyes turned toward Him as the model for his imitative 
activities. 

The Five-fold Social Inheritance. Apart from the op- 
erations of divine grace, the means at the teacher's dis- 
posal for the accomplishment of this wonderful transfor- 
mation, are the child's social inheritance which it is cus- 
tomary to speak of as at least five-fold. These inheri- 



106 TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PEIMABY METHODS 

tances are: 1) Science: The child must learn to adjust 
himself to the physical world in which he lives ; 2) Letters : 
The child must learn through the oral and written speech 
of men the results of the experience of the race under the 
divine precepts which were given to guide man's steps 
through the darkness; 3) Institutions: All the higher 
aims of life are attainable only through human institu- 
tions, such as home, church, school, state, etc., and the 
child must learn to adjust himself to these institutions; 
4) Aesthetics : If the child is to rise above the level of the 
brute, above the dominance of physical appetite, his soul 
must be taught to respond to beauty in all its forms; 5) 
Eeligion : If he is to attain his high destiny as a child of 
God, he must learn to know God, to love Him and to serve 
Him. 

We may consider these five aspects of a child's social 
inheritance successively, but in the actual work of the 
primary grade they are inseparable. We may emphasize 
each of these elements in turn, and in this way separate 
them from one another, but in the actual lessons of the 
class-room they must be interwoven in the close unity of 
the developing child-mind. In looking into natural 
phenomena, the child must be taught to see the face of his 
Heavenly Father; he must hear the voice of God in the 
speech of men ; he must see reflected in the family circle 
and in the actions of the nesting birds his own relation- 
ship to God ; and he must thrill to the beauty of God as 
he discerns it in the glowing sunset or feels it in the 
fragrance of the flowers. In a word, he must see God 
and feel Him in all things and find in Him the center of 
unity for the world at large and for his own life. In this 



PRIMARY TEXT-BOOKS 107 

way only can the mind of the child develop normally as a 
social and ethical being and as a child of God. 

The plan of this work mnst be the soul of the child's 
first book, which the teacher should not only be able to 
turn to for help, but should look to for guidance. The ma- 
terial should be arranged so as to meet the mental con- 
tent of the child at the beginning of the course and its 
development must be such as to follow and control the 
unfolding life of the child. The teacher, in the first grade 
especially, must, through stories and dramatic games, 
contribute very largely to the mental food of the child, 
but all of this additional material should be organized 
around the central core supplied by the text-book. 

Vocabulary Building 

The methods of primary reading will be dealt with in 
another chapter. In considering the text-books for the 
primary grades, we cannot overlook the fact that they 
must be employed by the teacher in the difficult task of 
acquainting the child with written language and in giving 
him fluency in reading whether for the purpose of 
thought-getting or for correct oral expression. The 
ruling principle for method must be the same as that 
used in thought-building. There must be unity and con- 
tinuity. The vocabulary already acquired must function 
in building up all additions thereto. This end may be ac- 
complished in two ways. We may build up a unified sys- 
tem of word forms and teach the child to recognize the 
new word from its embodiment of previously acquired 
elements and from its resemblance to words previously 
mastered. This is the principle that lies at the basis of 



108 TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PEIMAKY METHODS 

various phonic methods which have within recent years 
wrought such havoc with the cognitive faculties of the 
generation of pupils who are now in the beginning of 
adult life. Unity of mental life must be preserved, but 
this unity must be in the realm of thought and not in the 
extrinsic and subsidiary mental thing, language, written 
or oral. 

The sentences in the text-book must be so con- 
structed that by the aid of a limited written vocabulary, 
built up during a few months of exercise with blackboard 
and chart, as outlined elsewhere in this book, the child 
may be able to determine from the sense what the new 
written word must be, and the word should be repeated in 
sentences of this character until even the poorest visual- 
izers in the school will have grown familiar with it. This 
means, that on each page of a primary book there must be 
five or six per cent of new words and a similar percentage 
of words used in varying contexts for the second, third, 
fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth time. 
It may be, indeed, that in exceptional cases this procdure 
should be continued up to the fifteenth or sixteenth time. 
In other cases it may well be that five or six repetitions 
will meet the needs of the class. The vocabulary used in 
the primary book must consequently be employed with 
the greatest care if the results here indicated are to be 
achieved. While each story must contain at least fifty 
per cent of words that are thoroughly familiar to the 
pupils and not more than five per cent of new words, there 
must also be a definite percentage varying from two to 
five per cent used for the second, third, or fourth time, 
etc. It will be found practical to increase the num- 
ber of known words in most cases to eighty per cent. If 



PRIMARY TEXT-BOOKS 109 

this plan is followed systematically from story to story, 
it is possible at the end of the second year to have given 
the children a mastery of a large and well-selected vocab- 
ulary which will make it possible for them to read with 
ease the New Testament and many of the choicest classics. 
Where the training is carried along the same lines 
through the third year, the children will be found further 
advanced in their power of reading, spelling, thought- 
getting, etc., than is now the case with children in the 
higher grammar grades. 

Spelling should, of course, be taught with the help of 
the same book ; the method to be followed will be set forth 
in a later chapter. 



PART III 

THE CATHOLIC EDUCATION SERIES 
OF PRIMARY TEXT-BOOKS 

To get good results from the use of the text-book the 
teacher must have mastered it thoroughly. If gradations 
were permissible in this principle, we should say that it is 
more true of the primary text-book than of any other. 
In the advanced text-book the author has room to bring 
out in detail the truth which he seeks to impart; but in 
the primary text-book we are dealing chiefly with ger- 
minal elements in the various lines of truth, germinal 
elements in which structure is scarcely discernible and 
in which, nevertheless, must be contained the whole or- 
ganized body of knowledge which it is hoped to place 
under the control of the adult. 

The teacher should be able to discern in the seed, the 
fully unfolded organism. It is only when she does this 
that she is able to co-operate efficiently in securing the 
normal development of the elements in question. The 
lessons in the Catholic Education Series of primary text- 
books are clear and simple enough in themselves and the 
intelligent primary teacher who gives sufficient study to 
the matter will not find it difficult to arrive at a knowl- 
edge of what the authors have attempted to achieve 
through their use. To aid the teacher in preparing her- 
self to use the text-books, it has seemed well to include 
in this manual a brief analysis of each of the stories, 
and to point out the connection of one with the other. 
Much additional information on this subject may be 



CATHOLIC EDUCATION SEEIES 111 

gained by the teacher from the perusal of a series of 
articles written in the Catholic University Bulletin nnder 
the heading ' ' Educational Notes ' ' during the years 1908- 
1910, and also in a series of articles under the heading 
" Teaching of Religion" in the Salesianum, 1910-11. 
Several articles in The Catholic Educational Review bear 
on the same subject. 



CHAPTER XI 
BELIGION, FIEST BOOK 

The use of Eeligion, First Book, as a reader presup- 
poses the mastery by the child of a written vocabulary 
of words which are given at the close of this volume. 
The blackboard and chart work necessary for the proper 
development of this vocabulary is discussed in a subse- 
quent chapter. If the book is properly used, at the end 
of the year the children of the class will have mastered a 
written vocabulary of eight hundred words. All the 
stories in the book are told with considerable fullness by 
the series of pictures which illustrate the text. 

The scenes which the child, through his own experience, 
can clothe with color, are given in sepia ; the pictures of 
New Testament scenes in which our Lord is present, are 
in color. This arrangement was demanded, first, be- 
cause the children could not verify the scenes from their 
own experience; and, secondly, because it is desirable to 
throw the emphasis of the child's delight upon those 
scenes in which our Lord is present and which are asso- 
ciated with the fundamental truths of religion. 

The central thought and the dominant feeling de- 
veloped in each part find expression at its close in two 
songs set to music suitable for the children of the first 
grade ; it is not intended, however, that the children should 
be able to read the music. The songs should be taught 
as rote songs, and later on when the children are able 
to read music, they will return to them with pleasure 
and, through singing them, secure a renewal of the 



KELIGION, FIKST BOOK 113 

mental attitude generated by the study of these early 
lessons in school. Moreover, the eye will have grown 
familiar with the musical notation, and their knowledge 
of the songs will help them in the attainment of the 
power to read music. 

The thought material of the book has been selected 
with a view to the child's instincts and to his five-fold 
spiritual inheritance. Home, as the first social institu- 
tion, is dwelt on throughout the book. The foundations 
of scientific culture are laid in the first part of each of 
the five chapters. The religious truths dwelt upon in- 
clude the Lord's Prayer, the first half of the Creed, the 
two-fold commandment of the New Law, the end for 
which we were created, temptation and its dangers, the 
mystery of the Nativity, and some knowledge of the Holy 
Family, and of the public life and miracles of our Lord. 

Each chapter in the book is divided into the following 
four parts. First, a nature study which is at the same 
time the basis of the parable illustrating the social and 
religious lessons that are to follow in the subsequent 
stories of the chapter. It is intended that the nature 
study should be dramatized by the children. Second, a 
home scene related to the previous nature study. This is 
to be lived out; not played. Its purpose is to give the 
child a keener appreciation of parental love and the 
various blessings which it brings, and as a result to trans- 
form the child's selfishness and develop generous im- 
pulses. Third, a religious lesson which is in itself one 
of the great fundamental truths of religion and which 
is reflected both in the preceding nature study and in 
the social study. The main thoughts in the series of 
religious lessons are closely correlated, and through these 



114 TEACHERS MANUAL, OF PRIMARY METHODS 

religious lessons, as well as in other ways, all the material 
of the book is gathered up into close unity. Fourth, 
two songs in which the three preceding parts are 
summed up. Some times each song includes the entire 
lesson so that one song is in reality a repetition of the 
other, merely giving change of phrase and rhythm. At 
other times, each song covers but a part of the field so 
that the two songs are complementary. 

Part I. Love 

Nature Study. The aim of this nature study is to 
develop in the consciousness of the child the essential ele- 
ments of home in their simplest form; father, mother, 
little ones, the courage and self-sacrifice of the parents in 
flying long distances and braving the chilly days of 
spring in order to build a home for the little ones that 
God is going to give them, their mutual love and co- 
operation in building the home and in feeding and caring 
for the little ones. Love is the dominant element through- 
out. The lesson culminates in the bird's evening prayer 
with a hint of direct application by the picture of little 
Samuel at prayer. The home idea is in every story in 
the lesson and hence the thought and the vocabulary per- 
tain to the child's most vivid apperception masses. 
Moreover, the stories are largely action stories, which 
lend themselves readily to dramatization; and with one 
exception the action pertains to the parent bird, so that 
in the dramatizations the children are led to assume 
parental attitudes and in this way unselfishness and 
generous parental love are awakened in their hearts. As 
a nature study, it is the proper entry for the child to 



RELIGION, FIRST BOOK 115 

the world of life, for from the lowest form of life to the 
highest the preservation and continuity of the race is 
the central theme and in adopting this method of ap- 
proach the child's sympathies are appealed to, his in- 
sight is quickened, and his imagination is cultivated. As 
a setting for a parable, it constitutes the best possible 
preparation for the domestic study which follows. 

Domestic Study. This contains two parts: i. e., The 
Nest of Mother's Arms and Father's Welcome Home. 
In the former there is a detailed comparison between 
the child's home and the home of the robins, which must 
result in intensifying the child's appreciation of home. 
It is calculated to awaken in his heart a deeper response 
to mother love together with feelings of gratitude. In 
the father's welcome home, hints are given to the chil- 
dren and to their parents of a line of action which would 
help to purify the home and keep it sweet and wholesome 
for the children while at the same time it would develop 
the children's characters along right lines. 

Religious Lesson. This lesson is long, so it is divided 
into six parts. In "The Home of Jesus" the two 
previous lessons are recapitulated and they are made 
the means of introducing the child to our Saviour. The 
idea of home is seized upon and made the means of 
giving the children a realization that Jesus is more than 
man, that He is above man as man is above the birds, 
since His home is in Heaven. It then proceeds to de- 
clare the divinity of Jesus, since His Father lives in 
Heaven, and the mysteries of the Incarnation and the 
Eedemption are indicated in the story, ' ' He came to Show 
us the Way There." By presenting Jesus to the chil- 
dren in this way, moreover, all the love and apprecia- 



116 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

tion which is in their hearts for their father and mother 
and home, a love which has been quickened into new 
life by the two preceding stories, is here brought to 
Jesus as the child's welcome. 

For a justification of this procedure, turn to the parable 
of the lilies. Behold the lilies of the field, how they toil 
not, and neither do they spin, and yet not Solomon in all 
his glory was arrayed as one of these. Here we have a 
nature study as presented by Our Lord, when He would 
teach His simple-minded followers the same fundamental 
lesson that we are here endeavoring to impress upon the 
child's mind and heart. And the domestic study which 
immediately follows in the parable is, And which of you 
if your son should ask you for bread would reach 
him a stone, and if he should ask you for a fish would 
reach him a serpent? The third part of the parable 
is, And if you being evil know how to give good things to 
your children, how much more your Father in Heaven will 
give good things to them that love Him. 

Each part of the First and Second Books is constructed 
on the same lines as the parable of the lilies. No other 
mode of teaching will meet the demands of child-psy- 
chology, but the fact that this was Christ's method gives 
to it a higher sanction for our religious teachers than 
any science could furnish. Our Lord adhered to this 
method throughout His teaching. He taught them in 
parables, we are told by the Evangelist, and without 
parables he did not teach them. But after His disciples 
had been trained during some years, He spoke to them 
in more direct phrase; "But to you it is given to know 
the mysteries of the kingdom of God." But it should 
be noted that the lesson which follows this phrase con- 



BELIGION, FIEST BOOK 117 

sists chiefly in an exposition of the parable, as in the 
case of the sower who went out to sow his seed. 

The second story of the religious lesson proceeds at 
once to develop in the mind of the child the central truth 
concerning Jesus. The Divine Sonship and the Creation 
are not only placed before the child in the six sentences 
with which the lesson begins, but the child's tendency 
to imitate is utilized to produce in him the right attitude 
of mind and heart towards Jesus and towards His 
Father, the Creator of all those things which the child 
has learned to know and to love. The child is accordingly 
led to put himself in the place of the birds in the trees 
and the flowers as they welcome Jesus. 

The next step in the movement of this lesson is to lead 
the children unconsciously to accept Jesus, instead of 
lowly creatures, for their model; and in sympathy with 
Him they are taught to love the sunbeams and the breezes, 
the sky and the stars, the birds and the flowers, the sheep 
and their shepherd, and with Him they learn to love 
most those who work for others and who are kind and 
gentle. 

In "A Secret' ' the children are taught the great com- 
mand which Jesus taught to the children of men, love 
of neighbor flowing from love of God crowns life with 
perfection and fills it with joy and sweetness. 

In "The Tired Teacher' ' there is a return to the home 
idea in all the lessons that went before. The associations 
of mother and child, of trees and grass and birds and 
flowers and play, are all gathered up and brought to 
Jesus; for such is the complex unity demanded by the 
unfolding mental life of the child. In addition to this, 
the children are taught by the example of the friends of 



118 TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PBIMABY METHODS 

Jesus to be solicitous for the comfort of those who 
minister to them, and the teachers are taught by the ex- 
ample of Jesus never to be too tired or too busy to min- 
ister to their charges. "Suffer the little children to come 
unto me and forbid them not" is the joy and the con- 
solation of every Catholic primary teacher. 

"The Little Children' ' is intended to deepen the per- 
sonal love of the children for Jesus. Their vivid imagi- 
nations make this scene almost as real as if they were 
climbing up on Our Saviour's knee and putting their 
arms around Him. The foundation is here laid for that 
intimate union between the child and Jesus which is so 
soon to be consummated in the Holy Eucharist. 

Finally, in "A Sweet Lesson," Jesus teaches them 
what they must do to earn Heaven. He teaches them to 
work and to obey and to pray. The Our Father is the 
fitting culmination of this lesson, and even if some of the 
words are long and difficult, the thoughts are not foreign 
to the child. This and the following lessons of this book 
will help the child to a fair understanding of most of its 
petitions. 

Songs. "It is Love" sums up this part of the book. 
The first stanza recalls the central theme of the nature 
study ; the second stanza is devoted to the domestic study; 
the third stanza traces the sources of the love in the 
heart of the birds and in mother's heart; and the fourth 
stanza expresses that personal bond of love which has 
sprung up between the little hearts and the heart of 
Jesus. It is no longer indirect, a mere inference from 
the love of birds and of parents. The child has already 
tasted the sweetness of the love of Jesus and has listened 
to the saving words of grace and prayer from His lips. 



RELIGION, FIEST BOOK 119 

Paet II. Nutrition 

This part is constructed along lines that are identical 
with the preceding, hence a detailed interpretation does 
not seem called for. Father bird and mother bird feed 
their babies. Ceaseless labor in this task is traced 
back to the love for their little ones which fills their 
hearts. As a nature study, it enlarges the nature study 
of part one. Through its dramatization the children are 
prepared for the domestic study which follows. In The 
Two Mothers there is a repetition of the lessons of 
parental love which were taught in The Nest of Mother 's 
Arms and the whole gamut of love is brought out. In a 
Family Breakfast, the idea of prayer is inculcated, and 
in it the whole family are united. The contrast of the 
children's home with the home of the robin is repeated 
and the superiority of father's and mother's love to the 
transient love of the robin is shown. 

This lesson is repeated in another key in ' ' Feeding her 
Birds." The labor and providence of parental love is 
brought out and something of the complexity of the 
family group is developed. The idea of brothers and 
sisters is brought in, as well, as the idea of renunciation 
and brotherly love. 

The Eeligious lesson in this part was determined by 
Our Lord himself when He fed the multitudes and when 
He employed this miracle on the following day to teach 
his followers the mystery of the Holy Eucharist. 

The songs with which this part terminates are comple- 
mentary. The first sums up our reasons for gratitude, 
the second teaches the children to give thanks. 



120 TEACHEBS MANUAL. OF PRIMARY METHODS 

Part III. Protection From Danger 

In Part I the children were taught to love the Heavenly 
Father. In Part II they were taught to ask Him for 
their daily bread. In Part III they are given some reali- 
zation of temptation and of the means of escape which 
Jesus has provided for all who love and obey Him. 

The nature study will be found to contain a resume of 
the two preceding nature studies and a futher develop- 
ment of the theme. The fledglings are here seen to leave 
the nest for the first time. The mother's brooding care 
is shown in the picture of the first venture. The parent 
birds continue to provide for the little ones. And in the 
rescue, the heroism of the mother, who is ever ready to 
sacrifice her life for her little ones, is developed. 

The domestic study is little more than a repetition of 
the preceding nature study. The timidity of the child 
when the little chick is placed in her hand, the rapid 
growth of familiarity, with the consequent danger from 
which she finds a refuge in her mother's arms, is in 
itself a parable which the teacher will readily understand 
but into which the child must not look too closely. 

The religious theme shows that our safety in the midst 
of all danger is to be found in Christ. So long as we 
keep our eyes on Him all is well, no matter how the 
waves threaten or the storm rages; but the moment we 
look away from him and begin to rely on our own powei s, 
disaster is upon us. 

Part IV. Eemedy 

The nature study here brings out the fact that Ee- 
demption is scarcely known in the world of animal life. 



KELIGION, FIRST BOOK 121 

The weak and the wounded are left by the wayside to 
die. Eedemption springs from the miracle of God's love 
for man. He has imparted something of it to earthly 
parents, and He gave a splendid illustration of it in His 
frequent miracles of healing the sick and raising the 
dead to life. 

Pabt V. Models foe Imitation 

This part resumes all that went before and gathering 
up all that the child has been able to learn of the perfec- 
tion of home it bids him look to the Holy Family for 
his model and find in the Nativity the supremely in- 
teresting instance of a home on earth lifted to something 
of the perfection of the heavenly home toward which we 
are all striving. And the child is reminded that if he 
hopes to reach this home he must take Jesus as his 
model, and that, if he learns to be like the Child Jesus as 
He grew in wisdom and in grace before God and man, 
he may entertain a certain hope that he will share His 
heavenly home with Him in the future. 



CHAPTER XII 
EELIGION, SECOND BOOK 

Eeligion, Second book, presupposes a mastery on the 
part of the children of a vocabulary of eight hundred 
words. This vocabulary, at the end of the year, if the 
book is properly used, will reach eighteen hundred and 
fifty words. 

The pictures employed in this book, as in the case of 
Eeligion, First Book, illustrate the subject-matter of the 
text; but the children are not so completely dependent 
upon the pictures, since they can, to a much larger extent, 
gather the thought from the printed page. With few 
exceptions, the pictures are reproductions of master- 
pieces. Through the use of the pictures in the First and 
Second Books, the children make the acquaintance of 
such painters as Pinturicchio, Eaphael, Madame Le 
Brun, Hofmann, Elizabeth Gardner, Millet, Murillo, 
Plockhorst, Deitrich, Walter Firle, Landseer, Dvorak, 
Kaulbach, Titian, Corot, Allonge, Munier, Ghirlandajo, 
Portaels, Eubens, Eenouf, Bradford, Hobbema, Mengel- 
berg, Dore, Eembrandt, Molitor, Bouguereau, and Eich- 
ter. The stories are not written around the pictures, but 
the pictures naturally grow out of the text. In this way 
they help the children's imagination to visualize the 
scenes described. The children's taste is formed along 
right lines, and, without conscious effort, they are laying 
the foundations of an art culture that will at a later date 
save them from the gross materialism of our day. The 
aesthetic faculty is developed, instead of being demoral- 



RELIGION, SECOND BOOK 123 

ized by wretched drawings that are supposed to be good 
enough for children, and by color daubs, sometimes ap- 
proaching in atrocity the work of the Sunday supplement. 
In these books the best art of the printer is used to secure 
results that will cultivate the aesthetic faculty of the 
children. 

The songs in this book are intended to serve the same 
functions as in First Book. A comparison of these two 
books will reveal the gradual development of complexity 
in the subject matter as we pass up from the first to 
the second grade work. Each of the studies branches 
out into several stories. Two new features in the 
second book can hardly fail to attract the attention 
of the teacher. First, the introduction of the child to 
standard Catholic literature through the use of brief 
poems which grow out of the subject-matter of the text, 
from which they derive their interpretation for the child. 
Secondly, the addition of questions at the end of each 
study. 

The central aim of the Second Book is to teach the child 
obedience to law as distinct from obedience to individ- 
uals. The book is divided into seven parts. The first 
part presents the reward of obedience and culminates in 
the mystery of the Annunciation, in which God bestows 
upon Mary the greatest gift that He could bestow upon a 
creature. Part two develops the first end of obedience, 
private worship, culminating in the adoration of the 
shepherds. The third part deals with the second end of 
obedience, culminating in the ceremonial worship of the 
Magi. The remainder of the book deals with the Second 
Table of the Law. In part four it is shown that God's 
law is for our good and that disobedience to God's law 



124 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

leads to death. Part five presents the ideal of perfect 
obedience, culminating in the Finding in the Temple, in 
which the Child Jesus is seen obeying the will of His 
Heavenly Father ; then at the call of earthly constituted 
authority He goes down and is obedient to Joseph and 
Mary. Part six deals with the disobedience of our first 
parents and its consequences. Part seven presents to the 
child the idea of Eedemption, culminating in the story of 
the Good Shepherd. 

Part I. The Eeward of Obedience 

The children 's minds are to be prepared for the mys- 
tery of the Annunciation ; that is, the article of the Creed 
"Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost.' ' But there are 
many other things to be achieved at the same time. The 
children are to be taught through well-chosen examples 
the nature and the beauty of obedience, the aim being 
not to leave this knowledge a mere speculative posses- 
sion, but to secure its fecundity in the lives of the 
children. The obedience in question is obedience to God 
chiefly, obedience to His great command to love God and 
love one another. Virtue and sin are contrasted in such 
a way as to lead the children to love the one and to hate 
the other. The moral virtues are to be strengthened and 
devotion to Mary is to be inculcated. 

Nature Study. This nature study aims at teaching the 
children several fundamental lessons in biology, such as 
the mode of dispersion of winged seeds, the difference be- 
tween cultivated flowers and wild flowers, the habitat of 
the milkweed, the time of its blossoming, the nature of 
the blossoms, and its fertilization by the butterflies, the 



KELIGION, SECOND BOOK 125 

habitat of the goldfinches, of the thistle and the elder 
bushes, as well as introducing the children to the golden- 
rod, and some cultivated plants. This is, indeed, a large 
quantity of information on natural science to be imparted 
at one time to little children in the beginning of the sec- 
ond grade. Of course it will take several days to deal 
with the matter. The lesson is divided for convenience 
into two stories : The Three Little Milkweed Sisters and 
the Queen of the Butterflies. Four brief poems are in- 
troduced into the lesson, two from the pen of Father 
Tabb, one from James Whitcomb Riley, and one anony- 
mous selection. Nine appropriate questions are added, 
together with directions for dramatizing, drawing and 
modeling. 

a) The Three Little Milkweed Sisters. This story aims 
at presenting the two chief sources of a child's sins; 
greed and vanity, and at contrasting with these, self- 
respect and charity. The endeavor is made to lead 
the children to sympathize with the virtuous sister and 
to hate sin and its consequences. The lesson contains 
many illustrations of the method of thought develop- 
ment. The three little milkweed sisters first give ex- 
pression to discontent with their surroundings. They 
then formulate the desires growing out of their discon- 
tent. This is followed by their seizing the first oppor- 
tunity offered to realize their desires, whereas, in the 
fourth place, the results are depicted. Fluffy expresses 
this sequence as follows : 1) "It's a poky old place and no 
one ever comes to see us;" 2) "I want a home among 
the flowers where the sun shines all day and where every 
one will come to see us." 3) "This suited Fluffy, and she 
pushed right in among the flowers. "4) " She found Fluffy 



126 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

in the best part of the bed stealing the sunshine from 
the violets and the pansies — she pnlled her ont of the 
bed and threw her over the fence to die. ' ' This final stage 
in the development of the thonght occurs in the second 
story, which is, in reality, one with the first and is di- 
vided only for convenience. A similar development will 
be observed in the case of Flossie and Flitter. 

b) The Queen of the Butterflies. The development 
of the story of Fluffy and Flitter is comparatively brief. 
The child in imagination is led to despise them and to 
sympathize with the just punishment which overtook 
them, "for the wages of sin is death.' ' The chief em- 
phasis falls on the story of Flossie, who is to serve as a 
model to suggest many virtues to the child, such as hon- 
esty, self-respect, diligence, and charity. The moral 
is lightly touched, as it should always be in dealing with 
young children. As soon as the desired effect of the 
lesson is attained, the children's imaginations should be 
filled with ideals which will serve to lead them heaven- 
ward. The scientific truths in these stories are taught 
incidentally; they are so woven into the story which 
holds the children's interest that they are assimilated 
without effort. The moral lesson which serves as the 
basis of the parable holds the child 's interest throughout. 
Flossie suffers hardship. She is cold and hungry, yet 
she works hard and the result is a life of joy and useful- 
ness. She is strong and has abundance when her less 
fortunate companions are dying of hunger and thirst. 
She does not gloat over this, however, nor even advert 
to it, but utilizes the good things which she has acquired 
through her labor to give rest and food and drink to 
the butterflies, and for this she received her reward. 



BELIGION, SECOND BOOK 127 

It should be observed, however, that she does not do these 
things for the sake of the reward. She is unconscious of 
any mercenary motives; she is obeying the injunctions 
of the law of love. "I was hungry and you gave me to 
eat. ' ' The only desire that she is credited with apart 
from those which spring from self-respect, is the desire 
for little ones for whom she may spend herself. 

c) Poems. The first little poem is a description of 
the butterflies and a comparison of them with the flowers. 
This can scarcely fail to interest the children. It is true 
that it contains several unfamiliar words, but the chil- 
dren's delight in tracing out the picture in the poem and 
in following the analogy will, with a little ingenuity on 
the part of the teacher, render it comparatively easy to 
teach. Preserved specimens of butterflies, if none other 
are at hand, may be used, and the likeness to a pansy, 
or to other available flowers, should be pointed out to 
the children. The practice of developing analogies is 
very useful and it belongs pre-eminently to this stage of 
mental development. If the work is well done here, it will 
add greatly to the pleasure and the profit of literature 
later on. "For the world is full of roses" is so simple 
and sweet that no difficulty whatever will be experienced 
in teaching it to the children. It carries the mind of the 
children back to the first part of the First Book and 
secures a repetition of the sentiment which first drew 
the hearts of the little ones to Jesus. "I know blue 
modest violets ' ' presents another analogy which the chil- 
dren will grasp at once and rejoice in. At the same time 
the little poem revives in the children 's minds the idea of 
Creation and enlarges it somewhat. "Phantoms" is 
valuable chiefly for its analogy, but it also calls to mind 



128 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PKIMAEY METHODS 

the idea of the Guardian Angel and the functions of angels 
in general as ministers of God. These little poems might 
well be memorized by the children after they are thor- 
oughly understood. The story gives meaning to them, 
as it should, but this meaning may well be developed and 
enriched by the aid of appropriate object lessons. 

d) Questions. Throughout this book the questions 
are asked for the purpose of making the children think 
and answer in their own words, hence the answers are 
not given with the questions. Of course it is not meant 
that the teacher shall confine her questions to the few 
here given. The questions given are, in fact, intended 
chiefly as suggestions for the kind of questions that 
should be asked. The first question in this group calls 
to the children's experience out of school. If the 
milkweed lesson was given at the beginning of the first 
grade work, as was suggested in a previous chapter, 
the children will have noticed the milkweed growing 
and blossoming; they will have watched the ripening 
pods, and they will now be glad to tell all they have 
learned about the milkweed in answer to the teacher's 
questions. This is the first step in any real study 
worthy of the name. Its function is analogous to 
the "forecast," as discussed in the Art of Study. Such 
questions call up all the knowledge of the subject that 
the child possesses and organizes it with reference to 
further development. The second question calls for the 
exercise of judgment. The answer will be found partly 
in the children's observation and partly in the stories 
which they have just read. The teacher should develop 
this thought by means of many other questions analogous 
to this. The third question calls for experiment. If they 



RELIGION, SECOND BOOK 129 

have not broken a growing milkweed and observed its 
sap, the teacher should endeavor to have them do so. 
The fourth question calls out both experiment and the 
literature of the subject as contained in the stories. The 
fifth question deals wholly with the literature of the sub- 
ject. The remaining seven questions are intended to aid 
the children in making the application of the lessons 
taught to their own lives. It is an exercise of their ethical 
judgment ; it also serves to develop their imagination and 
their histrionic ability by leading them to imagine them- 
selves as possessed of the feelings and living out the 
actions of others that they may read about. 

e) Action Work. After the exercises suggested by 
the questions, the children will be ready to dramatize 
the story. It is a mistake to attempt dramatization until 
the stories have been pretty well learned, but at the 
proper stage few things will help more to complete the 
assimilation of the knowledge gained and to render it 
functional in the subsequent life of the children than a 
well-conducted dramatization of the story. After the 
dramatization the children should be led to use the ma- 
terial of the stories for drawing and modeling. The two 
suggestions given for this work ought to be so cor- 
related with the subject-matter of the children's study 
that one will help the other. Vivid and fecund mental 
pictures are of the greatest assistance in drawing 
and modeling. Indeed, good work is never possible unless 
it is preceded by a mental content of this character. 
When the children are being exercised on new matter, 
the drawing and modeling will be poor, there will be 
little joy in the exercise, and vicious habits will easily 
take root. 



130 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

Domestic Study. The aim of this study is to teach the 
children how to celebrate birthdays in such a manner as 
to derive mental and spiritual benefit. The idea of the 
patron saint is introduced, which in this instance is Our 
Lady. The story is divided into two parts and includes 
one poem. 

a) May's Birthday. In thought and vocabulary this 
story serves to prepare the children for the story of the 
Annunciation in the religious lesson which follows. Com- 
pare the first paragraph of this story with the first para- 
graph of the Annunciation. There is a hint given as to 
the father 's and mother 's duty in the matter of the proper 
education of their children. The day is begun by father 
and child assisting at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 
The child attends to her pets and shares her joy and her 
good things with her playmates. The father takes part 
with the children at the proper time and teaches them to 
remember the absent ones and particularly those who are 
sick, thus developing in the children's consciousness a 
practical knowledge of one of the seven corporal works 
of mercy. Incidentally, the good old Catholic custom of 
dedicating little girls to the Blessed Virgin and of having 
them wear the Blessed Virgin's colors is introduced. 
The mother 's wisdom is shown by mingling in the child 's 
anticipations the thought of the Blessed Virgin's birth- 
day, and the proper preparation for this feast elevates 
and sanctifies what might otherwise easily degenerate 
into a little pagan orgy of selfishness and sweetmeats. 
The father's prayer in the morning and the children's 
prayer in the evening for a little baby brother for May 
is intended to cultivate in the children the habit of re- 
garding babies as gifts from heaven. And finally in 



KELIGION, SECOND BOOK 131 

Kaulbach's To Earthly Home, with accompanying text, 
the children are prepared for the coming of the Holy 
Ghost to Mary bearing with him the Child Jesus. 

b) Poem. "A Bunch of Boses" serves to acquaint 
the children with Father Tabb's writings; it holds the 
children's thoughts and fills them with delight in the pic- 
ture of a little baby playing with its fingers and toes. 

c) Questions. The first two questions are intended 
to fix in the children *s minds the idea of the Nativity of 
Our Blessed Lady and the date on which it is celebrated 
by the Church. The children, unaided, may not be able 
to answer the third question and it is to be hoped that 
they may ask their mothers about it, which may be pro- 
ductive of good results in the restoration of the beautiful 
Catholic custom of dedicating children to Our Blessed 
Lady. The remaining four questions are intended to act 
as a sort of examination of conscience both for the chil- 
dren and for their parents. The objective work indicated 
is intended here also to aid the children in rendering 
fecund the best thoughts contained in the lesson. 

Religious Lesson. This lesson contains four stories, 
three of which are calculated to develop the virtue of 
filial obedience as well as the obedience of children and 
parents to Our Heavenly Father. It also serves to give 
the children an outline of Our Lord's genealogy and to 
further develop the shepherd idea. In the boy shepherd, 
David, a type of Our Saviour is brought out and the chil- 
dren are prepared for some of the leading characteristics 
of the Eedeemer. 

a) King David. David's fidelity and self-forgetful- 
ness in tending to his sheep is calculated to prepare the 
minds of the children for the story of the Good Shepherd. 



132 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 

He has no thought of himself or of the danger involved 
when he strangles the lion and rescues the lamb. More- 
over, the grief of the mother of the little lamb is upper- 
most in David's consciousness. The strength that en- 
abled him to accomplish this feat, like that which enabled 
him to slay the giant, was given to him by God because 
of the simplicity and purity of his motives. He obeyed 
God 's call whether it came to him from the danger to the 
lamb or directly from God Himself. Incidentally, it gives 
the children a picture of Bethlehem as the city of David 
and thus prepares them for the scene of our Lord 's birth. 

b) Mary's Parents. This story gives the children a 
picture of the home of Mary's childhood; it shows them 
the virtues of industry and charity animating her parents 
and the reward that God bestowed upon them in recog- 
nition of their obedience to Him by entrusting to their 
care the most perfect little girl that ever came into the 
world. 

c) Mary's Childhood. This story is the culmination 
of the lesson in obedience, showing as it does the child 
Mary living a life of perfect obedience to the will of God 
and to her earthly parents as God's representatives. 
There is only one further illustration to be adduced in 
this direction, and that is the obedience shown by the 
Child Jesus in the Finding in the Temple. 

d) The Annunication. The thought and the vocabu- 
lary have been so developed in the children's minds that 
they are able to read this story with an understanding 
suitable to their years. It is given for the most part in 
the words and phrases of the New Testament. It ends in 
the development of the Hail Mary. 



RELIGION, SECOND BOOK 133 

e) Poems. This study contains three poems. The 
quatrain with which the story begins is a bit of simple 
description that presents no difficulties to the children 
and may readily be committed to memory. Its simple 
rhythm will delight them and serve to recall the 
story of the Boy Shepherd and it is to be hoped that it 
will later serve to call up the picture of the Good Shep- 
herd. The triplet at the end of the story of Mary's child- 
hood is a motif which will help to make the children 
aim steadily at perfection. The Flowers by Eobert Louis 
Stevenson at the end of the story of the Annunciation is 
intended to take the children's thoughts away from the 
mystery of the Annunciation and to relax them. This 
poem, however, presents a large number of new words, 
but these, it will be seen, are chiefly names of flowers, and 
they may in consequence be taught to the children easily 
where the flowers enumerated can be had. When this is 
not possible, it would be well to omit the poem altogether 
and to pass at once to the next poem, u An Angel Bright, ' ' 
written especially for this lesson. There are very few 
new words in it, and in thought it is a resume of the pre- 
ceding lesson. 

f) Questions. The questions here mark a step in ad- 
vance over those in the preceding lessons. They call for 
a connected story from the children, not from their own 
experience, but from the text. The answers to most of 
the questions are given in the text, but they must dis- 
cover these answers for themselves. For the rest, the 
questions are similar to those that have already been dis- 
cussed. They serve the same purpose here that the re- 
view questions do in the art of study ; they link the newly 
acquired knowledge with that previously attained and 



134 TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PBIMABY METHODS 

make practical application of the truths in question to 
their own lives and conduct. 

Paet II — The Fibst End of Obedience — Pbivate 

Wobship 

This lesson is a preparation for Christmas. It cul- 
minates in the adoration of the shepherds. It aims to 
bring out the idea of prayer and its necessity. It deals 
with the relation of the creature to the Creator and with 
the necessity resting upon all creatures to strive for the 
attainment of the end for which they were brought into 
the world. 

Nature Study. This lesson presents a study of the 
forest. It is divided into three parts for the convenience 
of the little ones, while a close unity is maintained 
throughout. The pine and the poplar, the oak and the 
elm, are studied, as are also their relationships to each 
other and the influence which they exert upon climate as 
well as the relationship of plant to animal. 

a) Little Fir's Bream. The personification of the 
trees appeals to the child, who, at this age, is fond of 
personifying all things. At a moment's notice, the 
healthy child of six or seven can turn himself into a bird 
or a bee, a flower or a zephyr, or even into a locomotive 
or a fire-engine. This is nature 's way, in fact, of leading 
him to her heart and teaching him many of her great 
fundamental laws. The dream idea also appeals to the 
child and prepares him for a further step in personifica- 
tion, which is taken in the next story. 

b) The Fairy's Visit. There has been no little mis- 
understanding among primary teachers of late, concern- 



BELIGION, SECOND BOOK 135 

ing the use of fairy tales for children. It is objected on 
the one ha"nd that they are untrue and hence not suitable 
material for the child, since they would tend to weaken 
his confidence in the things that are told to him, besides 
teaching him to lie. Again, it is objected that many fairy 
tales present actions and attitudes that are repulsive and 
hence that they would lessen the delicacy of the child's 
moral sense, and it is maintained by these objectors that 
the lives of the saints may be made to furnish much better 
material for the exercise of the children's imaginations. 
All this and much more may be true of the abuse of fairy 
tales, but that should not lead us to discard their legiti- 
mate use. The teacher, however, should have a clear 
knowledge of certain criteria in the matter so that she 
may not err in her selection of fairy tales or in her mode 
of presenting them. 

In the first place, the fairy should always be reserved 
for the personification of nature in some of her aspects, 
whereas the angel is the messenger of the supernatural 
and bears his message direct from God. Secondly, the 
fairy tale must be such as will reach the child's intelli- 
gence and at the same time not mislead him into accepting 
it as an historical narrative of an actual personage. The 
child should always be made to realize that the fairy is 
only a personification of nature, a creation of the imagi- 
nation. In the fairy story here presented the children 
cannot fail to see the relationship between Little Fir's 
dream and the fairy which is only the dream endowed 
with personality and with a voice. The child is made 
to realize from the first paragraph that Little Fir is 
again in dreamland. He proves to himself that it is not 
a dream, but the proof will not convince any normal child ; 



136 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

he will see through its purpose at once and delight in 
it. The time of the fairy's visit is late in the night, long 
after the other trees have gone to sleep. The only assur- 
ance he has that he is awake is, that there is a full moon 
and that he can see as plain as day. But the children are 
likely to know from personal experience that there is a 
full moon in dreamland and that you can see there as 
plain as day. 

Once the children get this attitude towards the fairy, 
they are prepared for his subsequent visits in whatever 
form he may choose to take. The fairies are beings 
that the children can control and play with as they will. 
This is well illustrated in Mrs. Meynell's charming little 
volume "The Children." Speaking of a four-year-old 
child whom the nurse had tried to frighten into silence 
by threatening that the man with two heads would catch 
him if he did not stop making a noise, she goes on to tell 
of the mother 's finding the child i ' cowering with laughter, 
not with dread, lest the man with two heads should see 
or overhear. The man with two heads had become his 
play, and so was perhaps bringing about his sleep by 
gentler means than the nurse had intended." The moral 
that the fairy teaches is unobjectionable and lays the 
foundation of the child's vocation. In the three little 
Milkweed Sisters the children learned that pride nat- 
urally leads to sin and death. In this lesson they are 
led to analyze pride into three of its most prevalent forms, 
the pride of ancestry, of vanity, and of undue reliance 
upon self, and the fairy points out that pride in each of 
these forms leads to destruction. The Little Fir is dis- 
couraged at this, but takes heart when the fairy tells him 
that she has found a way to life and happiness in obedi- 



RELIGION, SECOND BOOK 137 

ence to natural law, the theme which occupies the next 
story. 

c) Mother Nature. The lesson here is that life and 
happiness can be attained only through obedience to 
God's law as written in the constitution of the creature. 
It is not what we want, but what God wants of us that will 
lead us onward and upward to the fulfillment of our high 
destiny. If we are faithful in obedience to natural law, 
we may confidently expect that in due time God will lead 
us to the higher levels of supernatural life. Insistence 
is also laid upon promptness and love as essential quali- 
ties of obedience. 

d) The Poems. "And Nature, the old nurse/ ' by 
Longfellow, is introduced into this lesson, as it sums up 
the theme admirably. Its vocabulary is not difficult, al- 
though it presents a number of words that the children 
will meet for the first time. The thought, however, is so 
fully in their possession after a study of the stories, that 
it will help them to acquire the new words. "I saw you 
toss the kites on high," by Stevenson, is illustrated both 
by the story and by the splendid picture of Corot, the 
Storm in the Trees. It will be found well worth while 
for the teacher to help the children to master the vocabu- 
lary in both of these poems, even if special preparation 
has to be made on the blackboard. Stevenson's poem has 
special value in this place as it calls to the children's 
minds the Omnipresence of God, which takes as its 
symbol the invisible wind with its power. 

e) Scripture Text. A Scripture text instead of a poem 
is introduced at the end of the Fairy's visit. It is in- 
tended that this text should be memorized by the children. 
It gives the proper form to the central truth of the lesson 



138 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PBIMAEY METHODS 

and the thought is of course the highest poetry even if 
the form lacks the rhyme and measure that the children 
so dearly love. 

Domestic Study. The story deals with the children's 
celebration of Christmas Eve. Little Fir typifies the 
soul called to a higher vocation. He had been faithful 
over a few things and he was placed over many. He is 
made the bearer of gifts from the Christ Child to the 
children of men. The sacrifice implied in cutting him 
down suggests the breaking of home ties by those who 
are called to the religious life and to be the bearers of 
graces to the souls of others. The children in their dream 
catch something of the message but they cannot under- 
stand it. The law of sacrifice is beyond unaided human 
nature. They are sent upstairs to listen to the story of 
the Holy Night but even that does not bring comprehen- 
sion to them any more than the actual occurrence two 
thousand years ago brought comprehension of the mys- 
teries of sacrifice and redemption to the Children of 
Israel. It requires the gift of grace from heaven to bring 
understanding and faith. "Amen, amen, I say unto you; 
you cannot come unto me unless it be given to you by my 
Father who is in Heaven.' ' An understanding of the 
meaning of Little Fir's sacrifice comes to the children 
only in answer to their prayer. This answer is contained 
in the two brief passages from the New Testament which 
are given for the children to memorize. 

a) Poems. The little poems from Father Tabb and 
from Lowell touch on the element of charity and sacrifice 
embodied in the practice of almsgiving, while the poem 
by Mary Duncan is a form of child's prayer. 



BELIGION, SECOND BOOK 139 

Religious Lesson. This is the story of the Holy Night 
as the shepherds lived it. It points out the quality of 
mind and heart that God picks out for His favors. It 
points out the obedience of the shepherds and calls at- 
tention to their offerings of prayer and sacrifice. It is 
intended to help to correct the children's standard of 
values while showing them that it is not money or fine 
clothes that make us worthy of favors from heaven. It 
also makes in the children's minds a beginning of the 
preparation necessary for an understanding of the Mes- 
sianic expectation. It begins to teach the great lesson of 
the preparation that was necessary for the coming of 
Christ into the world and into the individual soul. 

Paet III — The Second End of Obedience — Public 

Wobship 

This part is dealt with very briefly, as the full develop- 
ment of this theme belongs to a later stage in the child 's 
development. An understanding of it demands a fuller 
knowledge of social life. Until the child shall have a com- 
prehension of society as a unit, he cannot grasp the mean- 
ing or necessity of public worship. But the integrity of 
the story of the Christ Child demands that it be touched 
upon here and that the germ that will later on unfold 
and bear fruit be implanted. The three parts of this les- 
son, nature study, domestic study and religious study, are 
taken from the Biblical narrative ; they are not distinctly 
separated, nevertheless their outlines may be easily 
traced. 

The Lamps of Heaven may be regarded as a nature 
study. The children having learned the doctrine of Cre- 



140 TEACHEES MANUAL OE PRIMARY METHODS 

ation in the first part of the first book, and having had 
this truth presented to them repeatedly in diverse forms, 
are now ready and eager to see how older people look at 
the matter. They need confirmation to make them quite 
sure that there is nothing of a fairy tale about this 
wonderful story of Heaven and of Jesus. They are per- 
mitted here to look out upon the world through the eyes 
of the Wise Men and to see God in all things. They also 
learn that it is the part of wisdom to love and obey God 
and to thank Him for all His blessings. The setting 
which is the nature study proper, is a lesson in geog- 
raphy, and the first, in some respects, that has been 
taught to the children. They are told of Persia and given 
a description of the country, of its rivers and mountains, 
of its fauna and flora, and of the occupations of the 
people. But it is all done so quietly that the children are 
not conscious that they are being taught history and 
geography. 

The Promised Star is a domestic study in which sin is 
dealt with as a disturbing factor and one that inspires 
pity and fear. The Wise Men are again presented as 
models who obey God and who see Him in the heavens 
and see peace flowing from the obedience to God exhibited 
by the heavenly bodies in their movements. The Wise 
Men pray to God and seek to know His will in all things, 
for which they receive their reward in the appearance of 
the star. 

The third part is the story of the visit of the Magi told 
in the words of the Gospel. 

Two of Father Tabb's poems are introduced for the 
children to memorize. The first has but little connection 
with the story, except that it deals with the star and 



RELIGION, SECOND BOOK 141 

seeks to awaken the child's interest by its quaint conceit. 
The second poem points the religious lesson that the clean 
of heart are near God and reminds one of Our Saviour's 
statement, "Unless ye become as one of these.' ' 

Part IV — God's Law is for Our Good 

The most important part of this lesson is that devoted 
to sin, which finds its culmination in the slaughter of the 
innocents. It will be dealt with more fully in a subse- 
quent chapter on thought development in the primary 
grade. 

Nature Study. The nature study deals with autumn 
and with the preparation of plants and animals for the 
coming of winter. Providence covers up the roots of the 
plants with leaves and snow, and instinct in the squirrels 
and the gophers drives them on to lay up their stores 
of food with renewed energy. The fairy warning the 
robins to fly south is nothing more than this instinct of 
the birds personified. It teaches the children the habits 
of the birds and incidentally disapproves of the laziness 
of Bob White and the bravado of the sparrow. The les- 
son gives such a suggestive picture of the flight of the 
Child Jesus into Egypt that no intervening social study 
is required. It also teaches acts of virtue, such as neigh- 
borliness, and warning and help in time of need, so that 
the theme need not be developed in the social study. 

Domestic Study. In the story of Bock Ledge Light, 
which is here made the domestic study, obedience is the 
central theme. The promptness of the father 's obedience 
in filling and cleaning the lamps every morning for twenty 
years and the child's desire to fulfill the father's duty are 



142 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 

the chief lessons taught. The light sending out its faith- 
ful beams typifies the Church established by Our Saviour 
for the salvation of the world. Natural knowledge, like 
the moon and stars, is frequently hidden from men and 
fails to give its light; but the Church, though carried 
on by frail and erring human beings, through Divine 
power, is made to shed its saving beams upon the troubled 
waters of human life amid all the darkness and storms of 
human passion. Had it not been for her father 's fidelity 
in preparing the lamp in the morning, Nellie would not 
have been able to light it. Forgetful of her own fear 
and even forgetful of her father's need, she was con- 
cerned only that the lamp might shed its beams to save 
the passing strangers from the rocks. The lesson is 
summed up in an appropriate Scripture text. 

Religious Lesson. The religious lesson deals with two 
separate but related themes. First as God's Providence 
commanding the flight into Egypt ; second the lessons of 
obedience taught by Joseph and Mary as they carry out 
the instructions of the angel without hesitation or delay. 
The devotion of Joseph to Mary and the Child Jesus is 
also set forth. 

The beautiful poem, Little Jesus, by Francis Thomp- 
son, is utilized here to prepare the children for the story 
that is to follow. 

In ' ' The Holy Innocents ' ' the malice of sin is developed. 
Each of the seven capital sins that is dwelt upon is per- 
sonified and the child is given some realization of how 
these fundamental tendencies are directed against God 
and would destroy the Prince of Peace if they could. The 
gruesome side of the slaughter of the innocents is not 
dwelt upon, and the story rests with the five little martyrs 



RELIGION, SECOND BOOK 143 

crowned in heaven as the first who were privileged to 
suffer for Christ. 

Part V — Perfect Obedience 

This lesson develops the idea that perfect obedience 
consists in being always engaged in doing what we believe 
to be right and to be the will of God, while we stand ready 
at any moment to yield obedience to legitimately con- 
stituted authority, even when such obedience would take 
us away from the doing of what seems very good to us. 
It also brings out the fact that such perfect obedience 
leads to conquest over nature. 

Nature Study. The story of Silver Brook deals with 
the various forms of water: the vapor rising from the 
ocean and forming clouds, the formation of snow and 
ice, and the melting of these by the sun, the brook return- 
ing to the ocean and on its way furnishing drink to the 
thirsty flowers and animals and help to man's weary 
muscles. The parable contained in it is easily traced. 
The ocean typifies eternity from which creative energy 
calls man forth. The south winds that carry the clouds 
over the green valleys and over the hills are the influences 
of Divine grace, whereas the north winds that imprison 
drops of water as snow crystals, are typical of sin. The 
rabbit and the squirrel that would detain Silver Brook 
after his release through redeeming grace typify the ma- 
terialists and agnostics who refuse to man a higher origin 
or a higher destiny than clay. Silver Brook, with his 
ever-recurring song, home to the ocean, home, typifies the 
soul ever striving to return to the bosom of God and yet 
neglecting no opportunity to give help to the needy. As 



144 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMAKY METHODS 

it is torn by the rocks in its journey down the mountain- 
side, it gives us a picture of the contrition that must rend 
the soul of the sinner before it can be healed by divine 
grace. This is followed by a brief peace and then by 
obstacles, some of them coming up out of the past to 
block the way to heaven. But these will be overcome by 
courage and perseverance as the brook digs a way for 
itself around the rocks, after which it glides down through 
the valley of peace that always follows difficulties over- 
come. 

a) Poems. The poem "It is the mountain to the sea" 
from Father Tabb, gives the key to the story, and the 
fern song at the end brings out the fact that divine grace 
comes to us through our fellow man, God thus choosing 
to make us depend one upon another even for gifts of the 
supernatural order. 

Domestic Study. The domestic study here is a page 
from the history of the United States. It puts before the 
children in the right light George Washington as a boy. 
The incident told here is substantially true, and the way 
in which it prepares for the Finding in the Temple is too 
obvious to need comment. The lesson leads to the for- 
mulation of the Fourth Commandment in the words of 
Exodus. The poem from the pen of Father Eyan empha- 
sizes charity and co-operation as well as hospitality, but 
the central thought, of course, is reverence and obedience 
to parental wishes even when the parent is no longer 
present to enforce his commands. 

The Religious Lesson. The religious lesson here is a 
brief resume of the life of Christ, beginning with the 
return from Egypt, resting briefly on the scene in the 
Finding in the Temple, and closing with the miracles of 



KELIGION, SECOND BOOK 145 

Jesus, including the raising of the daughter of Jairus 
from the dead. 

Paet VI — The Disobedience of Ouk Fikst Pakents 

The aim in this part of the book is to teach the children 
the doctrine of original sin. Their minds have been 
gradually prepared for the scene of the first great dis- 
obedience. The Slaughter of the Innocents was intended 
especially to give the children such an aversion for sin 
and such an understanding of its malice that their sym- 
pathies would be on the right side in witnessing the first 
great tragedy of the race. The three parts of this lesson 
are traceable, though not distinctly marked. 

Nature Study. The story of the Creation is the culmi- 
nation of many lessons that have been given during the 
two preceding years. It gathers up all things in the 
child 's world and teaches him explicitly, in the words 
of Holy Writ, their source. At the end of the story of the 
Creation, the Third Commandment is given and should 
be memorized by the children. Questions in this, as in 
many of the preceding lessons, form an exhaustive cate- 
chism. They are much more searching than the usual 
catechism questions, but the children are required to 
find the answers for themselves from the text, the exact 
formulation being given in a comparatively few instances. 

Domestic Study. The Garden of Eden furnishes an 
ideal picture of home and the relations that should exist 
between man and wife as well as between the family and 
Almighty God. Just as the story of the Creation gathers 
up the nature studies and expresses the central truth in 
the words of Holy Writ, so the Garden of Eden gathers 
up into unity all the preceding studies of home life. 



146 TEACHEKS MANUAL OP PRIMARY METHODS 

Religious Lesson. The Flaming Sword presents the 
whole drama of temptation, of disobedience and its con- 
sequences, but it also contains hope and helpfulness. The 
children may be led to see that it was the mercy of God 
that sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden, for in their 
fallen condition no torture would have been greater than 
to have been in the presence of God. After the children 
are made to realize as far as possible the magnitude of 
the calamity that has overtaken our First Parents, they 
are led at once to the contemplation of the great mercy 
of God that moved Him to follow these poor sinners out 
into the world of darkness and to give them laws and 
commandments by which they might find their way back 
to life. He also planted in their hearts the hope of a 
Redeemer to come, which was needed to sustain them 
in the midst of the many trials that overtook them. 

Part VII. Redemption 

This part constitutes the final stage of the transition 
in the form of a lesson, from that of the parable with its 
three phases, nature study, domestic study and religious 
lesson, to that about to be employed in Religion, Third 
Book. 

The Water Lily and the Minnoiv. Munkittrick 's poem 
at the beginning of this story forms an excellent forecast. 
The gnarled unlovely root stands for human nature ; the 
slender gold-green shoot is Mary ; the pale bloom is Christ. 
The hope of the Redeemer was the vision that thrilled the 
root. This story connects up immediately with Silver 
Brook. The south side of the pond is typical of the un- 
sullied nature of childhood ; the north side with its black 



KELIGION, SECOND BOOK 147 

mud suggests sin. The sunfish and the perch here repre- 
sent animal nature, or the materialist, if you will; they 
play the role in this story that the squirrel and the rabbit 
played in Silver Brook. The long waiting for the Mes- 
siah is reflected by- the discouraged root. The story may 
be taken to typify the human race in its tragedy of sin 
and the glory of the Eesurrection, or it may be taken for 
the story of the individual soul that has strayed away 
from God until it is finally found by grace and brought 
back again to life. The sunbeam touching the brown 
head of the lily presents another picture of the Holy 
Ghost in the mystery of the Incarnation. 

The Way to Heaven. Instead of the usual domestic 
study, Our Lord is introduced here in His role of Teacher, 
in which He presents to the children four lessons, that of 
the Good Samaritan, the Forgiveness of Sin, the Prodigal 
Son and the Good Shepherd. 



CHAPTER XIII 
RELIGION, THIRD BOOK 

The children who have completed the work outlined 
for the second grade have command of a large vocabulary 
and have organized thought material which will enable 
them in the third grade to do work that is seldom at- 
tempted before the fourth or fifth grade; moreover, the 
four parts of each chapter ; viz, Nature Study, Domestic 
Study, Religious Lesson and Songs, have each grown so 
complex that it seems advisable in the third grade to give 
a separate volume to each of these lines of development. 

In the preparation of the First and the Second Books 
the center of unity was placed in the religious lessons ; the 
domestitc study and nature study were both chosen with 
reference to the religious lesson in question. In addition 
to this central unity in the religious lesson, the nature 
study lessons were related to each other as far as might 
be, and the same is true of the domestic study and of the 
music. The study of the books will reveal an orderly 
progress in each of these lines of development, as one 
passes from the first part of the first book to the end of 
the second book. During the first two grades the chil- 
dren 's minds were being prepared gradually to deal with 
these four lines of work as separate branches. 

In the third grade a separate book is devoted to each 
of these lines of development, and the unity in each book 
is strictly preserved, nevertheless, the four books are 
related to each other in a manner similar to the four parts 
of each chapter in the first and second book ; consequently 



RELIGION, THIRD BOOK 149 

the books are not to be taken up successively but simul- 
taneously. The first Nature Study book, chapter by 
chapter, will form the proper preparation for the suc- 
cessive lessons in the third reader and both of these will 
serve as a preparation for the corresponding part of 
Eeligion, Third Book, while the music reader intended 
for this grade will give expression to the thought ma- 
terial that is being progressively organized in the other 
three books which are in the hands of the third grade 
children. In the case of the books for the third grade, as 
in the studies in the first two books, the religious theme 
is first determined, and this controls, in a measure, the 
development of the themes in the Nature Study book and 
in the Third Eeader; for this reason, Eeligion, Third 
Book, will here be studied in the first place. 

The religious theme during the first two grades dealt 
with the child's relationship to home, to his earthly 
parents and to Jesus. During the second year he is led 
to an understanding of law as the embodiment of God's 
will and of the necessity that lies upon all creatures of 
obeying God whether His will be revealed directly or 
through legitimately constituted authority. He is also 
given an understanding of sin and its consequences cul- 
minating in the sin of our First Parents. In the third 
grade, therefore, the children are ready to take up the 
study of Eedemption which, accordingly, forms the theme 
of Eeligion, Third Book. 

Eeligion, Third Book, deals with the relationship of 
man to God, whereas the third reader, intended as its 
companion study, presents the relationships of man to 
man with God back of them. 



150 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PBIMABY METHODS 

The parable, with its three parts, forms the basis of the 
method of thought presentation in the work of the first 
and second grades and this movement of thought should 
still be utilized by the proper correlation of the chapters 
of the three books which are being studied at the same 
time ; but there is need in the religious lesson itself of a 
developing movement, and this is secured by the arrange- 
ment of the materials selected. 

Eeligion, Third Book, is, in reality, a brief and thor- 
oughly organized Bible History which, instead of follow- 
ing the chronological order as presented in the Old and 
New Testaments, seeks to organize material in such a 
way that the child may comprehend it ; so the matter is di- 
vided into four lines which form the four parts of the 
book. In each of these parts there will be found the 
gradual development of the type and prophecy as con- 
tained in the Old Testament, together with its realization 
in the New. Without some separation such as this, the 
complexity of the subject matter is so great that the 
child's mind is in danger of becoming confused and of 
losing its grasp on the theme. The four parts of Eeligion, 
Third Book, are: 1) The Church, 2) Sacrifice, 3) The 
Holy Eucharist, 4) God With Us. 

The same care has been exercised in the selection of 
pictures with a view both of illustrating the text and of 
developing the children's artistic taste. The colored pic- 
tures have been omitted because all the pictures in the 
book deal with religious themes and there is not the same 
necessity of marking the contrast and emphasizing the 
delight as there was in the earlier books. It would be 
well, of course, if all these pictures could be presented in 
good color work but that would add so materially to the 



RELIGION, THIRD BOOK 151 

cost of the book as to make the plan seem unadvisable in 
the preparation of the books intended for the children of 
the poor as well as of those more fortunately situated. 

The works of the following painters are represented in 
Eeligion, Third Book: Durer, Eaphael, Dore, Schopin, 
Hofmann, Zimmerman, Guido Eeni, Rembrandt, Stuer- 
boudt, Murillo, Plockhorst, Holbein, Munkacsy, Ciseri, 
Titian, Correggio, Furst, Da Vinci, Sampson, and Bart- 
lett. 

The language, both in vocabulary and phrase, is taken 
from our English Bible which has played so large a role 
in the formation of the English language. The book will 
prove invaluable, therefore, from the effect that it is 
bound to have upon the child's taste in reading as well 
as upon his control of language and his power of ex- 
pression. The masters of the English language, even 
when they are unfortunate enough to have lost their 
faith, still exhibit plainly in their writings their indebted- 
ness in the matter of style to the English Bible. 

The poems in Eeligion, Third Book, are related to the 
text in the same manner as those that were employed in 
the former books, but an additional principle appears in 
their selection; they are chosen not only so that their 
meaning may be developed from the prose text, but so 
as to prepare the children for the hymns employed in 
the Church's liturgy; many of the longer poems, espe- 
cially, are English translations of liturgical hymns. 

Part I. The Church 

The first part of the Mass deals with the preparation 
for the coming of Christ; the Gospel presents the ful- 
filment; while the Collect is a prayer for the application 



152 TEACHERS MANUAL OP PRIMARY METHODS 

of redeeming grace to the individual soul. In like man- 
ner, the theme which this part of Eeligion, Third Book, 
undertakes to unfold to the child's mind embraces prep- 
aration, fulfilment, and application of the principle of 
salvation through authority. The theme reaches its 
culmination in the transmission of the keys and is in- 
dicated in outline as a three-fold phase. The prophetic 
phase is given in the words of Isaias, "And I will lay 
the keys of the house of David upon his shoulder: and 
he shall open and none shall shut: and he shall shut, 
and none shall open. ,, The fulfilment is given from 
the Gospel of St. Matthew in these words: "And I will 
give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. And 
whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound 
also in Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 
earth, it shall be loosed also in Heaven. ' ' 

The third phase, application, is given in the Collect 
for the feast of SS Peter and Paul: "0 God, who in- 
trusting to Blessed Peter, thy Apostle, the keys of the 
Kingdom of Heavon, didst bestow upon him the power 
of binding and of loosing, grant that with the help of 
his intercession, we may be set free from the bonds of 
our sins." 

This three-fold phase will be found in the development 
of each part of Religion, Third Book, but that is not 
sufficient; each lesson must have these three phases in 
it. If it is to have its proper effect on the life of the child, 
there must be preparation, presentation and application. 
The first of these phases is given in each chapter by 
means of a story, sometimes divided into two or three 
parts, of some great event recorded in the Scriptures; 
this is followed by a lesson entitled "Thoughts for Us" 



RELIGION, THIRD BOOK 



153 



in which the central truths of the lesson are brought out 
more distinctly and presented in such a way that the 
pupil may not only grasp its meaning as part of the 
general theme, but may find in it hints for his own life. 
The application is explicitly made in the questions which 
follow "Thoughts for Us." 

Faith, Hope and Charity. This lesson is a resume of 
the latter part of Book Two; it retells the story of the 
Fall of our First Parents, but it emphasizes particularly 
the means of salvation through the three theological 
virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity; it makes a beginning 
by planting the germs of the ideas of contrition and 
confession. The "Thoughts for Us" point out the Church 
as the means of salvation, and the necessity of Faith, 
Hope and Charity, with the suggestion that these acts 
be learned and recited daily. The questions indicate 
to the children many applications of the truths learned 
in the lesson. 

The Ark, the Flood, and the Rainbow. These three 
stories tell of the dealings of God with Noe, of the build- 
ing of the ark, of Noe's faith and obedience, and the 
result ; they show forth the principle of salvation through 
authority ; for those who believed and obeyed were saved 
from the destructive flood. 

In the "Thoughts for Us" the meaning of this lesson 
is developed, and the children are shown how the ark is 
a type of the church which Christ founded to save men 
from the flood of sin. The questions here, as in all the 
other lessons, make the application; they are searching 
and much more complete than the set of questions usually 
given in the catechism and the children's powers of 
thought-getting and thought-expressing are developed 



154 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

through the exercise of finding and formulating the cor- 
rect answers from the text of the story. 

The Call of Abraham. The poem, written specially for 
this study by Eev. Charles L. O'Donnell, C. S. C, ex- 
presses the central thought, Vocation. The germs of this 
thought were implanted in the children's consciousness 
by the story of Little Fir in the Second Book. Here the 
theme becomes explicit. The faith and obedience of 
Abraham stand out so strikingly that it will not be diffi- 
cult for the teacher to show the parallel between Abra- 
ham's action and that of the faithful child or youth who 
seeks only to know what God wants of him in order to 
follow that call even where it leads them, as in the case 
of religious vocation, to break home ties, and to go into 
foreign lands, if need be, to carry the light of faith to 
those who walk in darkness. In ' ' Thoughts for Us ' ' the 
parallel between Abraham obeying the call of God and 
the Wise Men following the star is brought out, and at- 
tention is called to the fact that if God does not always 
seem to answer our prayers immediately it is for our 
good that He should delay and our faith and trust in 
Him must not diminish on that account. 

Joseph is Betrayed by His Brothers. The story of 
Joseph is divided into four parts, each of which is 
followed by the usual presentation and application. 
These stories appeal to the children and are utilized here 
not only for the development of the type of our Saviour, 
which is the main line of thought, but they are also used 
for the development of many useful lessons, such as the 
meaning and function of prophecy, the danger of favorit- 
ism, the evil consequences of jealousy, the reward of 
courage and fidelity, the beauty of returning good for 



KELIGION, THIBD BOOK 155 

evil ; and finally, in the way Joseph forgave his brothers, 
the children may be taught the necessity of contrition and 
confession in order to obtain pardon for transgressions. 
The doctrine of vicarious atonement is likewise prepared 
for by the conduct of Juda in offering himself as a sub- 
stitute for his brother Benjamin in order to save his 
father from suffering. In this instance there is a splendid 
type of our Saviour dying on the cross to atone to God 
for our sins and to save us from the punishment which 
we have deserved by our sins. 

The story of Joseph is followed by a brief outline of 
the history of the children of Israel in their Egyptian 
captivity and in their deliverance; of the giving of the 
Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai ; and of the infidelity 
of later generations in the Promised Land : these lead to 
an account of the founding of the Church by our Saviour, 
culminating in the descent of the Holy Ghost. The 
"Thoughts for Us" following this lesson contains a re- 
capitulation of the entire part, thus gathering into one 
place the evidence for the need of authority in the work 
of salvation and for the necessity that we are all under 
of being members of the Church and of obeying her 
commands. 

Thus is completed the teaching of the Apostles' Creed 
which was begun in the first part of the First Book. If 
comparison be instituted between the questions that have 
been employed in the Second Book and in this part of the 
Third Book with the questions usually given in the cate- 
chism, covering the same material, it will be found that 
the questions here given are far more searching and the 
knowledge they call for is more complete. Moreover, the 
children answer these questions from the fullness of 
understanding, whereas with the very best endeavor 



156 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 

it is well-nigh impossible to give such an understanding 
of the matter to the children through the aid of the cate- 
chism, which deals wholly with abstract formulations. 
Unless the matter is presented connectedly and in con- 
crete form, the children cannot understand it. This is 
along the same line as that insisted upon by Saint Augus- 
tine in his De Catechizandis Rudibus. Little by little, 
however, the children are being given the exact formula- 
tion, but they understand the matter first and then mem- 
orize the formulae with ease. This method was followed 
by the Fathers and by all the leading schools of modern 
catechists as well. The readers of this volume should 
consult the Spirago Method by Archbishop Messmer ; they 
will find there that the Archbishop insists strongly upon 
giving the children comprehension of the matter before 
requiring them to memorize the form. 

Paet II. Sacbifice 

It is admittedly difficult to give the children any ade- 
quate concept of sacrifice or of its necessity ; nevertheless 
the notion should be implanted; for if the idea and 
meaning of sacrifice in general have not been allowed to 
grow up and mature in the minds of the children, it will 
not be possible to teach them the story of the Crucifixion 
as it should be taught. 

Early Sacrifices, This lesson begins by pointing out 
to the children the four ends for which sacrifice should 
be offered and then it tells the story of the sacrifice 
of Cain and Abel, so as to bring out the qualities 
of soul necessary in order to render our sacrifices ac- 
ceptable. In the "Thoughts for Us" the children are led 



BELIGION, THIKD BOOK 157 

to see how they are to assist at Mass by joining with 
the priest in offering it up in adoration, thanksgiving, 
petition and atonement. They are shown how these pur- 
poses should animate our daily prayers. Something is 
taught also of the different kinds of sacrifice which ob- 
tained in the Old Law and the children's attention is 
called to the ways in which these early sacrifices typified 
the sacrifice which our Saviour was to make later on. 

Abraham's Obedience. In this story the type of the 
sacrifice on Calvary is brought out vividly, and special 
emphasis is laid on the love of God the Father, which is 
implied in permitting His only Son to be sacrificed on 
the cross for our sakes. The children are also shown 
how the act of disobedience of our First Parents was 
reversed by Abraham, and how, in consequence, his de- 
scendants were made the Chosen People of God and the 
progenitors of our Saviour ; the ideas of obedience and of 
vocation are also developed. 

The Paschal Lamb. In this story there is given a brief 
outline of the plagues of Egypt and of the deliverance 
of the Chosen People. The Paschal Lamb as the type 
of Christ is dwelt upon ; and the lesson it foreshadows of 
our salvation through the blood of the Lamb of God, from 
the death which we deserve for our sins, forms the imme- 
diate preparation for the story of the Passion. 

The Lamb of God. Two brief sketches of Our Lord's life 
are given for the preparation of the Sacrifice of Calvary. 
The story of Jesus' baptism by John in the Jordan and 
His triumphal entry into Jerusalem is given in the first 
of these. Emphasis is laid upon the necessity of prep- 
aration for the reception of divine grace. John's mis- 
sion is utilized to show the kind of preparation that is 



158 TEACHERS MANUAL OP PKIMAKY METHODS 

necessary, and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem is 
employed as a warning that external pomp and show 
give ns no guarantee that we are in a condition to receive 
divine favors. 

The New Commandment. Advantage is taken of the 
Last Supper to teach the children the commandment of 
love as set forth in the Gospel according to Saint John 
and the way in which it forms a transition link between 
the Paschal Lamb and Calvary is not lost sight of. 

Jesus Prays in the Garden. This forms the beginning 
of the story of the Passion, which is broken up into 
four parts in order to draw from the narrative 
wholesome lessons for the children and to give a 
proper opportunity to allow the Passion in its several 
parts, and as a whole, to sink into their minds and hearts 
in a way that will render the thoughts of the Passion 
and death of our Lord helpful to each of them in his 
subsequent struggles with temptation and sin. The 
story ends with an account of the Eesurrection and with 
the appearance of Christ to His disciples at Emmaus. 

Part III. The Holy Eucharist 

It is very difficult to present the doctrine of the Holy 
Eucharist to the children in a way that will appeal to 
their intelligence; argument and discussion are useless. 
It is only through an exercise of faith that they can be- 
lieve. When our Lord presented this truth to the multi- 
tude that followed Him around the lake after they had 
partaken of the miraculous loaves and fishes, they were 
unable to comprehend it; so our Lord said to them, 
"Amen, amen, I say unto you, you cannot come unto 



RELIGION, THIRD BOOK 159 

Me unless it be given to you by My Father in Heaven. ' ' 
In spite of this fact, onr Lord did not fail to use every 
means to bring home to them the meaning of the sublime 
doctrine which He taught. He made use of the striking 
miracle of the loaves and the fishes to whet their appe- 
tite; He recalled to their minds the type of the 
Blessed Eucharist set forth in the Old Testament: 
"Your fathers did eat manna in the desert ;" and, by dint 
of repetition, He left no room whatever to doubt His 
meaning. Guided by our Lord's method, we present the 
doctrine to the children, employing the Old Testament 
types and prophecies, such as the sacrifice of Melchise- 
dech, the Manna, the Loaves of Propitiation, the Unleav- 
ened Bread and the Prophecies — particularly that of 
Isaias. Use is also made, in large measure, of the liturgical 
hymns such as the Lauda Sion, the Pange Lingua and 
Verbum Supermini Prodiens together with the Mystery 
of Mysteries by Father Faber and The Raven Builds 
Her Nest, by Mrs. Alexander. The doctrine of the 
Blessed Eucharist is best given to the children in these 
great hymns which will help them to retain a doctrine 
that quite transcends the grasp of human reason. The 
available literature on this theme is so abundant that 
it was not deemed necessary to treat the matter exten- 
sively here; the aim was to furnish a mere outline that 
might be enriched and rounded out from other sources by 
the teachers. 

Part IV. God With Us 

The object of this part is two-fold. It is to bring home 
to the children the consciousness of God's abiding pres- 



160 TEACHEES MANUAL. OF PEIMAEY METHODS 

ence through the Holy Ghost as the soul of the Church, 
and through the sacramental presence of Jesus Christ on 
our altars. 

Across The Red Sea. In this lesson is told in more 
detail the story of Jehovah redeeming His people from 
the slavery of Egypt. He appears to Moses in the burn- 
ing bush and at each step in the procedure He directs 
Moses what to do in His name. Finally He takes up 
His abiding presence with the children of men in the cloud 
by day and in the pillar of fire by night. This part is 
closely allied to the first part of Beligion, Third Book. 
Salvation is shown to be given through authority in both 
cases. God dwells in the world and with His people, but 
He speaks to the multitude only through the mouths of 
His chosen servants, Noe, Abraham, Joseph, and Jesus 
Christ and His successors the Popes as the visible heads 
of His Church. 

Mount Sinai. The children of Israel were loaded with 
the spoils of Egypt which, through divine order, they 
took with them into the desert. God commands them 
to contribute the best of all they possess in goods and in 
skill to the building of a tabernacle to Him, thus 
teaching them generosity and self-sacrifice. 

The Building of the Tabernacle. The ordinances of 
the Mosaic law also give opportunity to enforce the 
truth that divine worship and all that pertains to it 
should be regulated by divine authority and not by the 
caprice of the individual. 

Sacrifices in the Tabernacle. Not only does God de- 
mand of them the best of all that He had given to them 
when coming out of Egypt, but He commands that for- 
ever afterwards they offer sacrifices in the tabernacle 



RELIGION, THIRD BOOK 161 

through the hands of the priests, and that the first fruits 
be offered and tithes be given for the support of the Le- 
vites, who should devote themselves exclusively to the 
services of the temple. 

The Temple. This story enforces the same lessons as 
those that went before. While the children wander in 
the desert, the tabernacle suffices as the home of Jehovah ; 
but when they come into the Promised Land and grow 
in wealth under the prosperous reigns of David and 
Solomon, a temple must be erected to God in keeping 
with the means of the people. The opportunity should 
not be lost to show the children by means of these lessons 
the obligation of every Christian to give to God of the 
abundance or of the meagerness which he may possess. 
The teacher should realize that it is only when we make 
sacrifices and contribute of our possessions to any cause 
that we remain faithful to it. Faith always flourishes 
while people are eagerly striving to build up churches 
and other institutions of religion, but no sooner are 
these completed and endowed, than the people who are 
no longer called upon to make sacrifices for God or His 
church, forget God and persecute the Church and tear 
down their edifices. 

It is not merely to make the work of money-getting 
for the parish and for the general purposes of the Church 
easier for the priest that these truths should be taught ; 
the faith and salvation of the children demand this teach- 
ing as much as they demand any other teaching of re- 
ligion. Salvation is not to be had without sacrifice, and 
however unpleasant this may be to a selfish and luxurious 
people, the teacher of religion must not shirk his duty in 
requiring sacrifice. There is no more conspicuous lesson 



162 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PBIMABY METHODS 

taught by the Mosaic dispensation than this, nor did the 
law make the burden light or in any other way seek to 
minimize its importance. 

The Upper Room. In this story the children are taught 
the passing of the old rites and the inaugurating of the 
new. The upper room replaces the temple as the first 
place of worship of the followers of Jesus. 

The First Christians. In this lesson the courage of 
the Apostles after the Descent of the Holy Ghost is 
shown. It also contains an account of the conversion 
of St. Paul. The effects of the Holy Ghost are thus 
shown both in illuminating the mind and in strengthening 
the will. 

The Catacombs. The book closes with a glimpse of 
the life of the early Christians in the catacombs. This 
and the preceding sketches are intended to make the 
transition from the Third to the Fourth book of Religion, 
which will deal with the teaching of the Church through 
her liturgical forms. 



CHAPTER XIV 
THIRD READER 

This book forms the continuation of the domestic 
studies of the First and Second books ; its aim is to teach 
the children the relations that should exist between man 
and man with God and a properly instructed conscience 
governing them. The Third Book on Religion presents 
the relationship of man to God, but as St. John says, 
if any man says he loves God and loves not his neigh- 
bor, he is a liar and the truth is not in him; for if he 
does not love his neighbor, whom he sees, how can he 
love God whom he does not see? Our Saviour in His 
teaching always linked these two commandments with 
each other: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and thy 
neighbor as thyself. If you love me, keep my command- 
ments. This is my commandment, that you love one 
another as I have loved you. 

The child's relationship to institutional life begins in 
the home and it is carried one step further when he is 
taught to relate himself properly to the school group. 
The Third Reader aims at laying the foundation of the 
social life of the Christian and of making clear the great 
fundamental principles which must govern man's social 
activity in every walk of life. The Third and the Fourth 
Reader, taken together, are intended to prepare the chil- 
dren for an intelligent study of history and literature. 
In the curriculum which we are building up for our 
Catholic schools, the fourth reader will be replaced in 
the fifth and sixth grades by a literature reader and an 



164 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PBIMARY METHODS 

outline history of the world; the former of these will 
be followed by grammar, the latter by one year's work 
in the history of the United States, which in turn will 
be succeeded in the eighth grade by a study of the civil 
government of the United States. 

The thirty-one sepia illustrations used in this book are 
by painters of repute, among whom are the following: 
Eaphael, Scheffer, Conti, Burne-Jones, Frere, Guido 
Eeni, Beyschlag, Gardner, Ruysdael, Delaroche, Auguste 
Bonheur, Long, Reviere, Dore, Murillo, Andrea del Sarto, 
Gabriel Max, David Neal, Henner, Sodoma, and Giulio 
Romano. 

The context of Religion, Third Book, is drawn in large 
measure from the Bible, and the words and phrases have 
a biblical flavor. The hymns are chiefly liturgical. In 
the Third Reader the aim has been to adapt existing 
literature to the child's needs, making as few changes 
as circumstances will permit; the work, however, is not, 
and from the nature of the case cannot be, a mere col- 
lection of specimen chapters from different writers; 
Organic unity must be preserved, and while this would 
be much more readily accomplished by writing the book 
throughout, it has seemed best to acquaint the children 
with the diversity of style employed by good English 
writers; in consequence, the attempt has been made to 
find the material that with the least possible change will 
contribute best to the results sought to be obtained. Of 
the thirty-three poems presented, live are selected from 
unknown authors, the remainder being from the follow- 
ing pens : Father Tabb, Thomas Hood, Charles Kingsley, 
Charles Mackay, Mary Howitt, Cardinal Newman, Ed- 
ward Lear, George Macdonald, Isaac Watts, Longfellow, 



THIRD READER 



165 



William Collins, Walter Scott, Elizabeth Carew, Bichard 
Trench, St. Hilary (translated by Judge Donahoe), Sister 
Genevieve Todd, St. Ambrose (Donahoe), Father Eyan, 
St. Bernard (Donahoe), Father Faber, St. Bonaventure 
(Donahoe). 

Many of the prose selections are well known, but they 
exist in so many forms that no attempt has been made to 
trace authorship. This seemed wise, particularly in view 
of the fact that many liberties had to be taken with the 
stories to fit the thought and the language to the chil- 
dren's capacity and to the lessons which the book, as a 
whole, is calculated to teach. 

The Third Eeader is divided into three parts. The first 
aims at giving an idea of conscience and its function in 
human society. The second deals with courage and the role 
that this virtue must play in the upbuilding of civil so- 
ciety ; this part of the book aims also at the cultivation of 
patriotism. The third part deals with the bond of neigh- 
borly love as sanctioned by Almighty God, but its main 
aim is to set in their right relationships the bond which 
binds man to his fellow man and the bond which binds 
man to God ; consequently it deals with the visible church 
and its relations to civil society. 

The name reader is unfortunate as it suggests the old- 
fashioned reader designed as a drillbook in elocution or 
in calling words; whereas, the central purpose of this 
book is to properly develop the social side of the child's 
nature and to prepare him for the part that he must 
one day play as a member of civil society and as a mem- 
ber of the visible Church. It was only because a more 
appropriate name did not suggest itself that the title 
reader was chosen, but it should not be forgotten by the 



166 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMAKY METHODS 

teacher that while this book is to be used as a reader its 
main purpose is to be attained through the proper de- 
velopment of the thought outline given. 

Part I. Conscience 

This part aims at developing the fundamental social 
virtues that are brought into play alike in man's civil 
and religious associations; it is also intended as a prep- 
aration for the first part of Eeligion, Third Book, and 
unless this is kept in mind by the teacher, she will at times 
lose the key to its meaning. 

The Coward and His Wife. This is one of the great 
fundamental stories that is represented in the literature 
of many nations. It is in reality the story of the fall of 
man, as that story repeats itself generation after genera- 
tion among the children of all nations. It has appeared 
in many forms. In substance it is identical with the 
Greek story of Tantalus. Of its many versions, that 
presented by Laboulaye, under the title of the Fairy 
Crawfish, was found to be best for our purpose and 
was accordingly selected. The story had to be adapted 
to suit our present purposes; the relationship to Adam 
and Eve and their fall had to be made somewhat more 
pointed; the language in places had to be simplified and, 
in some instances, the moral had to be slightly changed. 
The name Coward and His Wife was adopted to suggest 
the necessity of courage in all our social intercourse, and 
in particular to preserve our conscience unsullied; for 
the moral courage that enables one to obey his conscience 
is higher than that which enables him to face physical 
danger. The name Bobo was chosen to indicate the folly 



THIED BEADEE 



167 



of yielding to the demands of others against one's con- 
science. And one who adopts such a line of conduct is 
worthy of the name Bobo (fool). Zan is the name given 
to the coward's wife in memory of her illustrious proto- 
type Zantippe, who is known throughout the centuries for 
her abusive treatment of poor old Socrates. The story 
speaks for itself and scarcely needs to have the moral 
pointed, nor do we think it well for a teacher to make 
the lesson much plainer than it is in the text. It is bad 
policy to deprive the children of the opportunity to find 
things out for themselves ; we should rather direct their 
attention to the deeper currents of thought and allow 
them to experience the full joy of discovery, than to do 
all the thinking for them and leave them nothing but the 
memory to work with. 

As was said above, the lesson is intended as a prepara- 
tion for the first part of Eeligion, Third Book. There is 
one point in the story as told in Genesis that is likely to 
puzzle the child. God declared to Adam that on the day 
on which he would eat the forbidden fruit he would die ; 
now it is hard for the child to see how this sentence is 
carried out, and consequently he finds some difficulty in 
clearing up the veracity of God. The truth is, that God *s 
mercy intervened and prevented sin from carrying out 
its deadly results to their legitimate conclusion, as was 
done in the case of the sin of the angels who were cast 
out of heaven without mercy. The story of the Coward 
and His Wife carries this drama to its legitimate con- 
clusion and the children are allowed to see the tragedy 
played out to the death. This will serve a useful pur- 
pose in giving them some appreciation of the love and 
mercy of God which intervened in the case of our 



168 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

First Parents and in our own case. The story follows 
the account of the scene in the Garden, given at the end 
of the Second Book. It enlarges upon it and prepares 
the children to understand and to appreciate, to some ex- 
tent at least, the work of redemption, which the Third 
Book in Eeligion undertakes to present to them. 

Lessons For Life. This story and each subsequent 
story in the book is followed by Lessons For Life. This 
exercise in thought development, if properly carried out, 
will be of incalculable value to the pupils. These lessons 
consist, first, of a set of principles which have been illus- 
trated in the preceding story or in some other story that 
the children have already studied; secondly, of a search 
for the various embodiments of the principle; thirdly, 
of a number of questions which are intended to stimulate 
comparative studies to find likenesses and differences. 

The Lessons For Life, that follow the first story, may 
be taken as a sample for those that succeed: "We cannot 
long enjoy what we do not earn ; gratitude does not live 
long in selfish hearts ; the more some people get the more 
they want ; only the coward does wrong because some one 
wants him to do so. Find these four truths in the story of 
the Coward and His Wife. ' ' The children who have done 
the work indicated in the second grade will find delight in 
this hunt, and they will learn by it to recognize a thought 
no matter how variously it may be presented, and this is 
the first requisite for a profitable study of literature. 
It will also serve to free the thought from its concrete 
setting, a step which is not easy and yet one which must 
be taken before the child can hope to express a thought 
in his own words. 



THIRD READER 169 

The questions which follow are more detailed ; the first 
two "How is Zan like Eve? and How is Bobo like Adam, 
may be answered by the least bright children in the class, 
thus giving everyone something to do that lies within his 
power; moreover, such questions serve to sharpen the 
children's wits in discerning likenesses and differences. 
Such questions also serve to bring home to the children 
the truths that these great lessons contained in the Sacred 
Scriptures may be applied to our own lives. The final 
question "What did God give to Adam and Eve after 
their sin, which Bobo and Zan did not have?" is intended 
to turn the children's attention back to the Garden of 
Eden and awaken in them the desire to read more care- 
fully so as to be able to answer this question. The net 
result will be a heightened appreciation of the mercy 
shown by Almighty God, which is one of the main ends 
sought to be accomplished by this story. 

Bird Thoughts, This little poem will help the children 
to make the transition from the story of the Coward and 
His Wife to Hans Andersen's Pea Blossom. In addi- 
tion, it is full of imagination ; it recalls to the children the 
lessons concerning birds and their nest building in the 
First Book and to not a few children at the age of eight, 
the central thought of the poem will be brought home 
with a sense of delight. They have been growing from 
day to day and they are just beginning to realize the 
limitations of their mental world; they are catching a 
glimpse of great world-wide truths and they are prob- 
ably more keenly conscious of limitations than they are 
of positive knowledge. The only consolation they have 
in this state of mind is, that they are not alone and that 
probably there are others worse off than they are. 



170 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PBIMAEY METHODS 

The Pea Blossom. The chief reason for introducing 
this story here is to develop the thought of hope and to 
show its necessity for life; without it, Adam and Eve 
would have perished, and whenever it goes out in the 
stress and storm of life the end is at hand. As long as 
we keep our hope firm, we can work miracles and accom- 
plish the impossible every hour. With it Peter walked 
on the waters ; when he let go of it for a brief instant, he 
sank. With it, the ravages of disease are checked and 
battles are won against overwhelming odds; without it, 
cowardice lays hold of us and courage is impossible. 

The Magic Ring. This story has also been told in many 
literatures. It was translated into English by Miss 
Mulock and the French name Prince Cheri was trans- 
formed by some thoughtless editor into Prince Cherry. 
A better translation of the title, however, obtains at pres- 
ent and the story is found in current primary literature 
as Prince Darling. The story, as it appears here, is modi- 
fied in several respects, and liberty was taken even with 
the name in order to lay particular stress upon the funda- 
mental thought which concerns us in this part of our 
work — Conscience, for which the Magic Eing is but an- 
other name. 

There are many things mirrored in this story which 
are not intended for children's eyes, indeed the story in 
its original form is much better suited to adults than to 
children; this may account for the emasculated form in 
which the story is usually presented. The adult will 
see, of course, that it was not marriage that the wicked 
young king proposed to the maid in the woods, but this 
need not be placed within the child's reach. In like man- 
ner, the palace of pleasure which appears in a later 



THIRD READER 171 

part of the story need not reveal its sinister meaning to 
the children ; all that it should stand for to them is selfish- 
ness and greed and the misery and wretchedness to which 
these qualities lead. The story serves to bring home the 
necessity of justice and mercy and a clean conscience for 
the well-being of everyone and particularly for those who 
are placed in responsible positions over others. 

The moral lessons to be developed out of this story are 
many and important; some of them are set forth in the 
Lessons for Life: "A good man always helps those who 
are in need ; a brave man is always merciful to those who 
suffer ; a noble man returns good for evil ; a happy man 
loves God and his neighbor; wicked people lead their 
companions into sin and suffering; only the good are 
ever really happy; every bad action makes us worse; 
every good action makes us better ; when we are wicked 
those who punish us are our best friends.' ' Find these 
truths in the story of the Magic Eing and in the Miller 
of the Dee. This sufficiently indicates the scope of the 
story and the purpose for which it is here introduced. 

To Whom Shall We Give Thanks? This poem will 
serve the purpose of bringing the child's thoughts back 
to God and of impressing the lesson once more upon his 
mind that everything around him in this wonderful world 
owes its origin, directly or indirectly, to God, and that all 
things should work together to accomplish the great pur- 
poses of the Creator. 

The Camel. This poem is intended to prepare the chil- 
dren for the lesson that is to follow and to carry their 
minds back to the story of the Wise Men and their camels 
crossing the desert. It has value besides its function as 



172 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PKIMABY METHODS 

a connecting link. It is a pleasing story of desert life 
and of the camel and his ways. 

The Meeting in the Desert. The purpose of this lesson 
is to teach the children the necessity of quiet thoughtful- 
ness; the necessity of withdrawing from the noise and 
tumult of the busy world in order to be near God ; to hear 
the voice of conscience, and to distinguish what it says. 
Cardinal Newman's poem, which ushers in the story, con- 
tains this motif. 

The story itself is adapted from Ben Hur. Many 
changes had to be made in the phrasing to make it suit 
its present purpose. The language had to be simplified 
and the sentiment somewhat altered. It shows the futility 
of all man 's efforts to improve the condition of his fellow 
man or to build up enduring human institutions, unless 
the spirit of God enlightens the conscience, strengthens 
the will, and guides the work. It also brings out vividly 
the necessity of a Eedeemer, not only to open the gates 
of Heaven to man's soul hereafter, but to free him from 
wretchedness and suffering in this world. 

The lessons which the story seeks to inculcate form the 
best index to the purpose which led to the embodiment of 
the selection as the closing chapter of the first part of 
the book. They are given in the Lessons for Life as 
follows: "Only those who are properly prepared hear 
the voice of God when He calls; the highest wisdom is 
to seek to know what God wants of us and to obey His 
call joyously; without faith, hope and charity, we cannot 
come to God or worship Him as He desires to be wor- 
shipped; unless the Lord build the house, they labor in 
vain who build it." 



THIED READER 173 

The way in which the subject-matter is linked with the 
other stories that have been previously studied by the 
children in the First and Second Books and in the Third 
Book in Religion, is sufficiently shown by the remainder 
of this exercise: "Find these truths in the story of the 
Meeting in the Desert and in Lead, Kindly Light. What 
story in Religion, Second Book, does the meeting in the 
desert call to mind? What did the Wise Men do when 
they reached Jerusalem? What did they do when they 
found the Infant Jesus? Can you name any others who 
were prepared for the coming of Jesus and who recog- 
nized Him when they saw Him? What miracle occurred 
after the Descent of the Holy Ghost that was like the one 
that took place in the tent in the desert? 

This part of the book reaches a fitting climax in Lead, 
Kindly Light, which the children might well commit to 
memory at this time if they have not already done so. 

Part II. Courage 

The development of courage is not an easy matter. It 
is the habit of too many teachers and parents to regard 
it as innate. They seem to think that, while it is possi- 
ble to destroy courage in a child, it is quite a hopeless 
task to build it up. This is a mistaken notion ; courage, 
like other virtues, needs to be cultivated, and if the task 
is undertaken with intelligence, it will not be found un- 
usually difficult. The beginnings should be made at a 
much earlier period than that with which we are now 
dealing. The work here presupposes courage and aims 
at a further development of it. 

The Owl and the Pussy Cat. This nonsense rhyme is 
introduced here to lower the tension generated by the 



174 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PEIMABY METHODS 

preceding selections. The Meeting in the Desert and 
Lead, Kindly Light take the child to a high level, where 
he will find the air too rarefied for comfort. His 
mind must be relaxed before starting out in another di- 
rection; and "A little nonsense now and then is relished 
by the best of men. ' ' 

The Ugly Duckling. Children who have been brought 
up too tenderly are likely to be over-sensitive, to be cow- 
ardly in the presence of pain or deprivation of any kind, 
"Mamma's darling' ' has much to unlearn before he is fit 
to take his place with men in the give-and-take which 
make up life. His imagination needs to be developed 
and he must be taught, by mingling with his fellows, that 
the whole world is not centered about him and his needs. 
Jerome K. Jerome puts the matter very well : ' ' There is 
a mean between basking through life with the smiling 
contentment of the alligator and shivering through it 
with the aggressive sensitiveness of the llama, deter- 
mined to die at every cross word. To bear it as a man, 
we must feel it as a man. * * * We whimper and whine 
at every pain. In old strong days men faced real 
dangers, real troubles, every hour; they had no time to 
cry. Death and disaster stood ever at the door. Men 
were contemptuous of them. Now in each smug, pro- 
tected villa we set to work to make wounds out of 
scratches. Every headache becomes an agony, every 
heartache a tragedy. It took a murdered father, a 
drowned sweetheart, a dishonored mother, a ghost, and a 
slaughtered prime minister to produce the emotions in 
Hamlet that a modern minor poet obtains from a chorus 
girl's frown, and a temporary slump on the stock ex- 
change. Like Mrs. Gummidge, we feel it more. The 



THIED EEADEE 175 

lighter and easier life gets, the more seriously we go out 
to meet it. The boatmen of Ulysses faced the thunder 
and the sunshine with frolic welcome. We modern sail- 
ors have grown more sensitive. The sunshine scorches 
us ; the rain chills us. We meet both with loud self-pity. ' ' 

The complaint is generally made that our homes to-day 
are so soft that the children are really spoiled before they 
go to school ; and the school discipline has been softened 
proportionately. The man teacher has given place to the 
woman. Physical punishment has been banished by law 
and the teachers seem bent on making nice little ladies 
of all the boys. It is needless to say that such treatment 
will not only fail to develop courage in the boys; it is 
evidently intended to destroy, root and branch, whatever 
courage the child inherited. We complain of the rough- 
ness of boys when left to themselves at play: they fight 
and in many other ways indulge in tempers and con- 
duct that the mother and the lady teacher strive to pre- 
vent. Nevertheless, experience in a boy's boarding 
school is good for a boy ; it may make him fit to live with ; 
whereas the boy who has had private tutors or lady 
teachers exclusively may— well, it is not safe to say what 
he may do. 

The Ugly Duckling should prove helpful in our en- 
deavors to remedy some of the evils to which we have 
just referred. If the lesson is well taught, it will im- 
plant in the souls of the children a number of principles 
which will stand them in good stead in their journey out 
into the unprotected world where they shall have to meet 
men who are not interested in them and learn to take 
their place as one of the struggling throng. They must 
become acquainted with suffering and injustice, and the 
sooner they begin the task the better it will be for them. 



176 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PEIMAKY METHODS 

The Lessons for Life attempt to bring out a few of 
these principles, but the teacher will be able to add many 
other lessons which must be determined in view of the 
actual needs of the children. 

The little poem to the angel guardian at the close of 
this story is intended to recall the need we all feel of call- 
ing upon God for help. To have true Christian courage, 
we must learn the lesson St. Paul teaches: Of myself I 
can do nothing, but I can do all things in Him that 
strengthens me. 

The Little Hero of Haarlem. This story sets forth 
some of the difficulties of the physical environment which 
courage and perseverance have served to overcome. It 
also constitutes a lesson in geography that is valuable as 
a germ for future development. But the central thought 
in the story is that in civil society we depend on one 
another for safety. Organized society in which there is a 
division of labor is necessary to secure protection against 
dangers from physical nature no less than from armed 
foes. It is also necessary to secure from nature those 
gifts of flowers and fruits which she will yield under 
proper conditions. There are many incidental things 
taught in this lesson which have values not to be neg- 
lected. 

Little Hans was instructed by his father in the mean- 
ing and value of his daily work, and courage and patriot- 
ism were developed in his soul by the heroic stories told 
to him by his old blind friend. It was while making an 
effort to give pleasure to his mother that the opportunity 
to save his people came to him. In the trial, the boy ever 
kept the common good uppermost in his mind. He never 



THIRD READER 177 

let it be displaced by his personal interest or his per- 
sonal fears or pains. The personification of the sea and 
the play of the child's imagination made his suffering 
keener, but imagination and sensitiveness are qualities 
that invariably go with heroism. 

From this lesson the children should learn that heroism 
is a quality that does not spring suddenly into existence ; 
it grows out of acts of self-forgetfulness and thought- 
fulness for others. 

Moses in the Bulrushes. In the story of the Ugly Duck- 
ling the children are taught to meet hardship at the 
hands of their fellow mortals. In the Little Hero of 
Haarlem they are taught how to overcome the difficulties 
of physical nature through the channels of organized 
society. In the story of Moses in the Bulrushes the chil- 
dren are allowed to see that God does not withdraw from 
the affairs of men ; He watches over the deeds of nations 
as well as of individuals and punishes cruelty and sin in 
the one no less than in the other. God always hears the 
cry of the oppressed and comes to their aid in the hour of 
need. These truths are admirably illustrated in the 
treatment which the Egyptians meted out to the Children 
of Israel and in the way that God punished them for it. 
The lesson also shows that when God wishes to attain a 
result, He frequently takes the poorest and the weakest 
human agency for the purpose, lest sve should be de- 
ceived and trace the result not to God but to a human 
source. In the story of Moses in the Bulrushes the chil- 
dren are shown how God took a poor helpless baby, con- 
demned to death by the laws of a powerful and cruel 
nation, and not only rescued him but made him the in- 
strument for the deliverance of his people and the pun- 



178 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

ishment of the wicked Pharaoh, who had decreed his 
death. 

William Tell. The story of William Tell forms a fit- 
ting sequel to that of Moses in the Bulrushes. It is 
nearer to the children and they will understand it better. 
Moreover, the children's sympathy will go out to little 
Walter who shared the honors with his father. Cruelty 
and oppression here overreached themselves and, as 
usual, brought down just punishment from Heaven. The 
children should learn from these lessons that justice will 
prevail. 

The story is frequently told in such a way as to lead 
the children to lose sight of the Providence of God, but a 
slight adjustment of the motive brings the story back to 
the truth. "He placed the second arrow in the bow, 
and with a prayer to God to guide it in its flight, he shot 
it with unerring aim," in spite of the fact that the sun 
was in his eyes and of the further fact that his enemies 
deemed the feat a hopelessly impossible one. 

The principles given at the close of the story may 
easily be rendered functional through the proper teach- 
ing of the story itself and through other similar bits of 
literature. "God always defends those who put their 
trust in Him. Cruelty and injustice always return in 
the end on the head of the tyrant. It is better to die in 
a just cause than to do wicked things for fear of evil 
men." Of course reliance must not be had on a single 
lesson for the development of any one of these principles. 
Accordingly, the Lessons for Life send the children hunt- 
ing for these principles in other stories, for it continues : 
"Find these truths in the story of William Tell. Which 
of these truths do you find in the story of the Seven Black 



THIBD HEADER 179 

Imps? Which of them is illustrated in the story of the 
Coward and His Wife? Which of them is to be found 
in the stories of the Little Hero of Haarlem and of Rock 
Ledge Light 1 Which of these truths is illustrated in the 
story of Joseph ?" This exercise, if properly carried 
out, will gather up the fruits of the two previous years ' 
work and utilize it for the mastery of the principles which 
are here formulated for the first time. The thought, in 
this way, is integrated at every step and each new truth 
acquired is made to shed its light upon the whole pre- 
vious content of the mind. Besides, this constant prac- 
tice of hunting out truths expressed in different ways 
and in different incidents cannot fail to give the pupil 
power to see the deeper truths beneath the surface of 
what he reads and of what he experiences in the daily life 
around him. 

Queen Esther. The story of Queen Esther teaches the 
same lessons together with some others. It will serve 
to give the children a realization that real heroism is not 
confined to manly breasts. Queen Esther took her life 
in her hands and braved death in order to save her peo- 
ple. Her courage sustained her in a keen battle of wits 
with a shrewd courtier and in the end gave her the vic- 
tory. The many lessons which this story has told to suc- 
cessive generations of men ever since the days of the 
Babylonian captivity are so legible that neither teacher 
nor children can miss them. 

Part III. God and Neighbor 

Man is organized in civil society for the attainment of 
things of this earth, and God likewise organizes man into 



180 TEACHEBS MANUAL OP PRIMARY METHODS 

a spiritual society for the attainment of higher ends. 
These two societies should never come into conflict, but 
when civil society forgets its legitimate sphere and, en- 
tering into the spiritual realm, undertakes to deny God's 
right to rule, then man must make his choice. He cannot 
serve two masters and he must choose God in preference 
to man. It was this choice that nailed Christ to the cross ; 
it was this same choice that glutted the beasts of the 
arena with the blood of martyrs. The lesson needs to be 
taught to each generation of men. 

Daniel. The story of Daniel in the Lions' Den illus- 
trates the courage required at times to defy human au- 
thority in obedience to God's command. The chief les- 
sons in the story have been repeated in many of the 
stories of this series of books. It is introduced here to 
show the universality of the struggle. It obtained in the 
olden times; it was the great struggle of Christianity 
with paganism, and the battle is being fought out again 
on a modern arena. 

St. Peter. The figure of St. Peter standing before the 
judges and defying them recalls at once the story of 
Daniel and serves to show the eternal sameness of God 
and of human nature. 

The Christian Slave. This and the subsequent selec- 
tions are intended to develop for the children vivid pic- 
tures of early Christian life with its purity of motive, its 
courage, its endurance, its tenderness, and its reverence 
for the dead. 

The Lessons for Life bring out many of the funda- 
mental Christian virtues which find illustration in these 
stories. And above all they place before the children sev- 
eral types of Christian heroes, such as Syra, the Chris- 



THIRD HEADER 181 

tion slave ; St. Agnes, the child of wealth and high social 
standing; the three sisters who devote their lives to the 
common good ; St. Pancratius, the first hero of the Blessed 
Sacrament; and St. Sebastian, the soldier and Chris- 
tian hero. It is well that the children should learn to 
admire such heroes as William Tell, George Washington, 
and the little hero of Haarlem, but we must not fail to 
balance these with such heroes as St. Pancratius, St. Se- 
bastian or St. Peter. The purpose of this work is to lay 
the broad foundations in the souls of the children for civil 
and religious society, and it will not do to neglect proper 
balance. To hold up in a light that would attract the boy, 
military heroes, such as Napoleon, Caesar and Alexander, 
whose moral characters are not always unassailable, and 
to present the saints in a way that would repel him, can- 
not fail of producing such unbalanced developments as 
have served time and again to lead the hosts against Holy 
Mother Church. 



PART IV 

THO UGHT AND LANGUA GE 

Throughout the entire educative process a clear line of 
distinction should be drawn between thought accumula- 
tion and thought development ; the former leads to erudi- 
tion, the latter is an integral part of education. In the 
adult world of to-day there is no more pathetic figure 
than the so-called walking encyclopedia ; he is not wanted 
anywhere; his stores of knowledge are not accurate 
enough to be relied upon either in productive scholar- 
ship or in the applied sciences. Moreover, no matter how 
prodigious may be the memory loads carried by these 
poor victims of mistaken educational methods, the item 
of information actually wanted is frequently missing, and 
substitutes are not desirable. A few dollars invested in 
encyclopedias and digests give infinitely better results; 
they are humbler, more convenient of access, and less ex- 
pensive to maintain. 

On the other hand, from the failure of mere erudition 
to accomplish the ends of education, one should not be 
betrayed into the opposite extreme of supposing that 
truth is superfluous and unnecessary in the work of edu- 
cation, as the compilers of some primary text-books and 
some primary teachers seem to think. At no time in the 
educative process can the truth as food material for the 
mind be neglected or relegated to a place of secondary 
importance. In the struggle for existence that is going 
on to-day throughout the civilized world, more knowledge 
is required than ever before. More knowledge is re- 



THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE 183 

quired, in fact, than could be stored as a body of isolated 
facts, in the most capacious memory. 

What is demanded from the first day in school to the 
last is, that the thought furnished to the child-mind shall 
be incorporated therein as an integral part of its living 
functional structure. Success in this achievement must 
be the aim of teacher and text-book alike — all else is 
secondary thereto and for the most part but means to 
this end. If we teach the child to read, it is that he may 
have access to the thoughts of men in the past and in the 
present ; that he may slake his thirst for knowledge at the 
pure fountains of thought that well up from the genius 
of the race, no less than at the stream of Divine Revela- 
tion. If we teach him to write and to spell, it is only that 
he may convey his thoughts to others. If we bring 
him into the laboratories of science and teach him the 
technique of the investigator, it is only that he may ac- 
quire a knowledge of nature's laws. Always and every- 
where thought-getting and thought-giving is the aim. 

The first criterion, consequently, that must be applied 
to any proposed primary method is, what effect it will 
have on the child's thought-getting power; if the result 
is unfavorable, no other commendation of the method de- 
serves attention. If the ultimate aim of all our striving 
is not furthered or if it is even defeated by a proposed 
method that may yield brilliant reuslts in the production 
of some educational bi-product, the method in question 
has no claim to our attention; for what doth it profit a 
man to gain the whole world if he lose his own soul ? 

Methods of teaching reading, writing, spelling, etc., 
while their direct aim is the cultivation of power over the 
mechanism of thought-getting or thought-expression, also 



184 TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PBIMAEY METHODS 

have an important beating on the child's processes of 
thought-getting and thought-development, and such bear- 
ing must be our first concern. 

Many primary methods, thoughtlessly employed in the 
schools of the United States during the past few decades, 
have wrought incalculable harm by their injurious effects 
on the thought-getting processes of the children. It may 
be laid down as a general rule that any method which 
tends to lift words or other external forms of thought 
into the focus of consciousness and establish them there, 
is injurious. The mechanism of thought in all its forms 
should function normally in the indirect field of mental 
vision, thus leaving the mind unhampered and unob- 
structed in its process of thought-getting and thought- 
developing. It will not avail that the method in ques- 
tion succeeds in developing rapidly and thoroughly words 
or other thought forms, if in order to do this they have 
monopolized faculties that they should serve. 

In the study of primary methods that of thought- 
getting and thought-development must be assigned the 
first place. This has not heretofore been the case in many 
of our schools. Even a cursory examination of current 
primary text-books will show this. But until this mat- 
ter is set right, and the importance which belongs to it 
is attached to the process of thought-getting, little 
progress can be made in our educational work. 



CHAPTER XV 

METHODS OF THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 

To teach the child to think is not so difficult a task as 
it is some times supposed to be. If the work is under- 
taken with intelligence, the young mind will readily re- 
spond, but nature, even in a child, rebels at the cram- 
ming process which has often been misunderstood for 
thought-getting. We shall here consider four elements of 
the problem. 1) the functions of memory, 2) the thought 
development in the text-books, 3) collateral reading, 4) 
dramatization. 

Memory 

Memory has a two-fold function. First, to retain thought 
for future use in the form in which it is found : in this 
respect it might be compared to the first stomach of the 
ruminant, where the fodder is accumulated to await the 
animal 's leisure to chew its cud. The second function is 
to hold truth up to the intellect while it is being assim- 
ilated or lifted into the living structures of the mind. In 
both of these functions repetition plays an important 
part, but the manner of the repetition differs. 

Repetition. It is just as true to-day as it was when the 
adage gained currency that repetitio est mater studio rum. 
The principle of repetition is appealed to in support of 
methods that are paralyzing in their effect upon the mind, 
and it may be appealed to with equal confidence in sup- 
port of the best that educational methods have to offer. 



186 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

Whatever may be said of the power of certain highly 
gifted minds to retain that which they once lay hold of, 
it will not be questioned by any one having experience in 
the matter that repetition is indispensable to the child in 
his attempts to master either the thought or the words 
in which the thought is expressed. 

This statement is pre-eminently true of the work in 
the primary grades ; it is only by dint of frequent repeti- 
tion that we can teach the children anything. So far 
there is general agreement, but when it is a question of 
the manner in which this repetition should take place, 
there may be found the widest divergence of opinion and 
of practice. 

Memorizing Forms. When the aim is erudition, the 
exact form will be committed to memory by frequent 
repetition. This method prevails in China and it has held 
sway for long centuries among the Hindoos. And while 
it does not find many champions among our modern edu- 
cational thinkers, it still prevails to no small extent in 
many of our class-rooms. The method of studying the 
text literally still finds an honorable place in many 
schools. The following is quoted from a pedagogical text- 
book which issued from the press in a revised form within 
the present decade: "The teacher should tell the pupils 
that the best way to study a lesson, is, not to read it again 
and again, from one end to the other, but rather to adopt 
the following method: 1) To read the whole text with 
great attention, two or three times, to grasp its general 
meaning and plan; 2) To memorize one or two lines, 
i. e., a portion in which an idea is developed; 3) When 
these are well known, to learn others and to unite them to 
the previous lines ; 4) When in this manner a whole sen- 



THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 187 

tence is retained, to repeat it several times without look- 
ing at the book, and then to go on to another sentence 
and study in the same way. Children should not be per- 
mitted to study aloud in the class-rooms. Doubtless they 
would learn more quickly by articulating the words than 
by merely looking at them, but to preserve order they 
must be required to study without being heard." 

Memorizing the Catechism. The memory method de- 
scribed above has grown out of centuries of experience. 
It might be seen in full force in the schools of China 
which are just passing out under the pressure of modern 
progress. The aim is frankly erudition; the child is re- 
quired to memorize not only the thought but the exact 
form in which the thought is expressed. This method is 
retained in the teaching of certain subjects in some 
schools which have long since discontinued its use in 
many of the branches taught. Thus it is not uncommon 
to find religion taught in this way. The answers in the 
catechism are committed to memory by dint of frequent 
repetition. The emphasis is laid on the exact wording; 
whether the thought is mastered or not is considered of 
secondary importance. The saddest thing about the prac- 
tice is that many of the teachers who insist upon it confi- 
dently expect, not the sterile memory loads of the erudite, 
but the vital, fecund knowledge that expresses itself in a 
robust Christian character. Again, there are many teach- 
ers of English who fondly rely for results in the produc- 
tion of future writers on the practice of committing tc 
memory choice literary selections. Others, forgetful 01 
ignorant of the true meaning and function of memory, 
feel that this important faculty can be adequately culti- 
vated in no other way than by constant exercise in mem- 



188 TEAOHEBS MANUAL OF PBIMABY METHODS 

orizing literally certain texts. For such as these, the 
only remedy available is to be found in a careful study 
of psychology. 

Memorizing Thought. When the aim of education is to 
render functional whatever knowledge may be acquired 
in a developing mind, the method of repetition will be 
found to differ markedly from that described above. The 
thought must be repeated again and again, it is true, but 
each time it must be presented in a more developed form 
and it must be related to other apperception masses that 
have grown up in the interval. 

It may be well to emphasize here the fact that by the 
development of a thought is not meant mere additions to 
the thought laid on, as it were, from the outside. This 
method is sometimes attempted, but like many another 
compromise it has the merits of neither the erudition 
system of memory nor the development system. Devel- 
opment means essentially reconstruction; it means ren- 
dering explicit what was previously implicit; it means 
making functional that which was latent. In mental life 
it means a new point of view, new correlations and a more 
advanced stage of functioning. 

There should be close co-operation between the teacher 
and the text-book in all points of method, but nowhere 
else, perhaps, is this agreement more necessary than in 
the method of thought development. The teacher who 
studies the Catholic Education Series of primary text- 
books can scarcely fail to observe the manner in which the 
method of thought development is embodied in them. The 
Questions, the Thoughts for Us, and the Lessons for Life 
constantly direct the attention of teacher and pupil to 
this aspect of the books. 



THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 189 

Out of the many important thoughts that are closely 
interwoven in the texts of this series of books, we shall 
select two for the purpose of illustration. 

The Shephekd Idea 

The Shepherd Idea was selected here as an illustra- 
tion of the method of thought development employed in 
the Catholic Educational Series of Primary Text-Books 
because of its simplicity and because the thought is in a 
manner tangential to the theme developed. A second 
illustration will be given dealing with a central thought. 

The children in our primary class-rooms, for the most 
part, have no actual knowledge of sheep or shepherds; 
the experience of most of the children is remote from 
shepherd life. Nevertheless, it is important that Catholic 
children be put into possession of the shepherd idea with 
something of its fullness and power, because of the use 
which our Saviour made of it both in His preaching and 
in the founding of His Church. 

The Shepherd Idea is first presented in Eeligion, First 
Book, page 20, where this passage occurs: "Jesus loves 
the sunbeams and the breezes. He loves the sky and the 
stars. He loves the birds and the flowers. He loves the 
sheep and their shepherd. He loves all who work for 
others. No one is so kind and gentle as Jesus. ' ' The set- 
ting of this passage is full of love and sweetness. The 
birds and the flowers and all nature, as far as the children 
understand it, are welcoming Jesus, and this speaks of 
His answering love for them because they are creatures 
of His Heavenly Father. Among the things that Christ 
loves is mentioned the sheep and their shepherd, and 



190 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

immediately after this, mention is made that He loves all 
who work for others. The causal connective is omitted 
here, first, because the children are not prepared for so 
long an utterance, and secondly, because they are not 
ready for the complexity of sentence. But the placing 
together of the two ideas serves the purpose, and this 
practice is quite in keeping with the mental development 
of many children of six. 

The Mother Idea. After the germ of this thought has 
been thus planted in the children's consciousness at the 
beginning of the first grade, there is no further mention 
made of it during the remainder of the year. On the sur- 
face, this might appear to be a violation of the principle 
of repetition, but in reality it is not so, for our concern 
must be to develop the ideas first and later on we may 
readily add the name. Now the Shepherd Idea is inti- 
mately related to the Mother Idea. The shepherd's love 
for his sheep has many striking characteristics of 
motherly love ; it possesses the same tenderness, the same 
watchfulness, the same self-sacrifice, and it calls forth 
the same heroism when occasion requires ; hence it is im- 
portant that the idea of mother love be strengthened in 
the child's mind before we proceed further in the matter 
of developing the modification of that love which we shall 
call Shepherd Love. 

Our Saviour taught His followers to clothe God with 
the attributes of Father; He never referred to Himself 
as the Father, but as the Shepherd. He sometimes goes 
further and points to His love for His followers in the 
quality of mother love, as when, weeping over Jerusalem, 
He said "How often would I have gathered you under 
My wing even as a hen gathereth her chickens.' ' 



THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 191 

Derivative Attitudes. The work of the first year was de- 
voted, as far as thought-development is concerned, to the 
transformation of the home instincts into the home vir- 
tues, and it did not seem wise to call attention at that 
time to any of the analogies or derivatives of the funda- 
mental attitudes that we were there concerned with. 
When we reach the second grade, however, circumstances 
are different. The children are ready to enter upon a 
higher phase of development; their attitudes towards 
other social groups than the home must be built up, and, 
if development be the law, the home attitude must form 
the basis of this social unfolding of the children's natures. 
Here, then, are the time and place for the further elab- 
oration of the Shepherd Idea. Accordingly, we find it 
introduced in the first part of the Second Book. 

The Shepherd Idea is not found in the Nature Study 
which is dominated by the Mother Thought. It is the 
Mother Milkweed that holds the center of the field, and 
her cradle full of milkweed babies forms the climax. It 
is the song of the Mother Bird that is listened to. In 
May's Birthday, the social study that follows, mother is 
again the central thought. In this way the mind is pre- 
pared for the development of the Shepherd Idea which 
forms the opening part of the religious theme. 

In the story of David, the transition from the Mother 
Love to the Shepherd Love is so natural that it is ac- 
complished without attracting special notice. The qua- 
train with which the story begins is redolent with mother 
love: 

Flocks of quiet sheep are feeding, 

Little lambs are playing near, 
And the watchful shepherd leading 

Keeps them safe from harm and fear. 



192 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PKIMARY METHODS 

This relationship is gradually brought out and strength- 
ened as the story proceeds; as for instance: "David 
never forgot them, he took them to the brook to drink 
and went with them to the pasture. When the little 
lambs were sick, he took them in his arms and fed them 
and carried them home. David loved his sheep very 
much and they loved him. They followed him wherever 
he went and came when he called them." This passage 
is again a description of the mother 's loving care for her 
little ones. The closing sentences will carry the adult 
mind to that other scene in which our Lord describes 
Himself in almost the same words. In the incident that 
follows, the heroism of mother love and its tendency to 
self-forgetfulness and self-sacrifice is the dominant tone. 
"David heard the lambs cry and ran after the lion. He 
caught him by the neck and killed him. Then he took the 
poor little lamb in his arms and soothed it and brought 
it back to its mother. ' ' The thought of one familiar with 
the Gospel will not fail to pass over to the words of 
Christ, in which He describes Himself as the Good 
Shepherd. 

Development of Details. The Shepherd Idea is again 
repeated in the religious lesson of the subsequent chapter 
where the shepherds and their life is made the chief part 
of the theme. The idea of the shepherd is repeated, but 
repeated in such a way as to secure development and 
detail. "The angels did not find those humble people 
dressed in fine clothes nor living in fine houses. They 
passed by the palaces of Jerusalem and came to the hills 
near Bethlehem where David had tended his father's 
sheep." Here the previous lesson is recalled, but the 
character of the shepherd, his clothing and habit, as well 



THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 193 

as his standing before God, are brought out. The follow- 
ing passage calls up other portions of the previous lesson : 
"In that same country they found shepherds who, like 
King David, tended their flocks with loving care. They 
took them to the brook to drink and to the green pas- 
tures to eat. They watched over them by night and pro- 
tected them from the wolves and the lions." Thus the 
old lesson is made the basis of a story recorded in the 
Gospel, a story which cannot fail to have developed 
the children's love and admiration for the shepherd and, 
what is of far more importance for our purpose, it will 
enable them to enter into the spirit and purpose of our 
Lord's description of Himself as the Good Shepherd, 
with which the work of the second grade closes. It will 
enable them to gain some realization of the meaning of 
the scene in which our Saviour delivers to St. Peter the 
keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and clothes him and 
his successors forever with the attitude towards us of the 
shepherd towards his flock, and with the authority to 
guide and to govern. 

The Idea of Sin 

The primary teacher is confronted with no more dif- 
ficult task and scarcely with a more important one than 
that of developing in the children a correct knowledge 
of sin and a right attitude towards it. 

Motor Tendencies. It is a well-known fact in Psy- 
chology that every thought tends to realize itself in 
action. It is true, that ideas differ widely from each 
other in their dynamogenetic content ; abstract ideas have 
less of this tendency than concrete images, and mental 
pictures of action or motion are more potent than pic- 



194 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

tures of stationary objects. Again, a picture that calls 
up instinctive tendency or habitual action is more likely 
to find motor expression than one that is wholly unrelated 
to tendency or experience. 

Inhibition. In developing in the child's consciousness 
the idea of sin, it is therefore a matter of the utmost im- 
portance that we proceed in such a manner as to safe- 
guard him from the danger of reducing his growing 
knowledge to practice. We must not sully the child's 
soul with sinful ideas and hope to prevent these ideas 
from realizing themselves in action through threats of 
hell or of other forms of punishment. By such procedure 
we may, indeed, make some progress towards establish- 
ing effective inhibitions, but that does not justify us in 
planting in the child's soul an idea that needs to be in- 
hibited. It was against such practices that our Lord 
uttered the warning: It were better that you had never 
been born or that a mill stone were hanged about your 
neck and that you were drowned in the depths of the sea 
than that you should scandalize one of these little ones. 

The end sought in developing the idea of sin in the 
child's consciousness is in many respects diametrically 
opposite to that which we attempted to realize in develop- 
ing the Shepherd Idea. We wanted the Shepherd Idea 
to lay hold of the child's imagination and his emotions, 
and of all the love that is in his heart, and to direct these 
towards deeds of gentleness, and to a proper attitude of 
love and respect for Christ and for the Church. In de- 
veloping the idea of sin, on the other hand, our chief con- 
cern is to prevent the idea from realizing itself in action. 
The matter must therefore be so presented as to stimu- 
late mind and heart and action in an opposite direction. 



THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 195 

The example set for a child's imitation should be close 
to him and detailed, and the mental picture which we 
expect him to realize in action must be concrete and as 
vivid as possible. The opposite must be our procedure 
in the present instance. 

Germinal Thought. In Eeligion, First Book, a be- 
ginning was made by picturing to the children the tempta- 
tion of curiosity and the dangers to which it may lead. 
Curiosity tempted the idle Little Eobins to explore the 
nearby bush and they would have lost their lives by 
yielding to the temptation were it not for the watchful- 
ness of mother-love. Similarly, May, who is timid when 
the chick is first placed in her hands, rapidly grows 
familiar with birdlings and thereby gets into trouble with 
the gander. St. Peter, in the subsequent religious les- 
son, nearly loses his life through the curiosity that 
tempted him to take his eyes away from our Saviour and 
rest them on the troubled waters. Nothing further in the 
matter of developing the idea of sin is attempted in the 
first grade. 

First Phase of Development. In the story of the 
Three Little Milkweed Sisters, with which Eeligion, Sec- 
ond Book, begins, there is taken up an analysis of two 
of the sources of sin; namely, pride and greed; but the 
matter is handled in such a way that the children's sym- 
pathy goes out to Flossie, who serves as a model of imi- 
tation, while the sinful sisters are presented in such a 
way as to call forth the children's dislike, and the theft 
into which each of these sinful tendencies betrays the 
unfortunate little Milkweeds is punished by death, while 



196 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PKIMAEY METHODS 

the punishment and the manner of its infliction hold the 
sympathy of the children. 

In the story of Little Fir, the idea of sin is further 
elaborated, but in this instance as in the preceding one, 
every precaution is taken to prevent the sinful action 
described from creeping into the children's lives. 

In the story of the Promised Star the matter is brought 
closer to the children. They are told of the wicked men 
in the streets of Babylon, who were filling the city with 
noise and disorder ; but at the same time they are led to 
look down on these men from the vantage ground of the 
Wise Men, and they are made to feel that such disorderly 
conduct can call forth only pity or contempt from anyone 
who is worthy of their respect. In the story of the Flight 
into Egypt they see sin in its true color and shrink from 
it. It is sin endeavoring to kill the Prince of Peace, the 
Babe of Bethlehem, who has already won all their love. 

Final Stage of Development. In the story of the Holy 
Innocents this line of development reaches its climax. 
The children are shown the seven capital sins in their true 
colors ; these sins, hideous in themselves, egg on the wicked 
old man, who is made to inspire the children with fear and 
dread, to destroy the child Jesus, and the result is his 
own misery and untimely death. At every step in this 
sketch care is taken to win away the children's sympathy 
from Herod, and care is also taken to paint sin in its true 
color and to give it a proper background. With this 
preparation the children are taken to the Garden of Eden 
where they are allowed to study the first great sin which 
plunged the world in such grief and suffering. 

Correlation. In the brief sketch which we have given 
above, we have touched on a process of development in the 



THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 197 

minds and hearts of the children, which occupied more 
than a year. No single line of development can be car- 
ried forward by itself ; the various lines blend and inter- 
lace at every step ; hence, an adequate concept of the way 
in which the idea of sin is developed in the children's 
minds cannot be had without studying the text as a whole. 
The story of the Holy Innocents, for example, is preceded 
immediately by the beautiful poem Little Jesus from the 
pen of Francis Thompson. This poem will so fill the 
hearts of the children with love for the Child Jesus that 
they cannot help hating those who sought His life. 

Heredity, It has often been said that children are 
more prone to evil than to good, and one would naturally 
be led to expect as much, for, under the law of heredity, 
every child tends to revert to primitive type. Were we to 
look at the child's relationship to the law of imitation 
alone, we would expect him to imitate a good action quite 
as readily as an evil one. That he does not do so we must 
attribute to the fact that imitation is not alone in the 
field ; heredity has priority and through heredity the sins 
of the father are visited on the son to the seventh genera- 
tion. Judging from the results, we would sometimes be 
inclined to think that evil tendencies must go still further 
back so strongly are they rooted. This situation makes 
it imperative that the children be shielded from evil 
example until such time as good tendencies have been 
highly developed through frequent imitation of worthy 
models. We should win the children by the presentation 
of the beautiful, and only when right tendencies are 
strongly marked can we afford to let the shadow of evil 
fall across their souls. If the matter is dealt with prop- 
erly, it will be found possible to develop in the children's 



19 S TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PBIilABY METHODS 

minds a knowledge of sin under such conditions that they 
will turn from it with a shudder of dislike. 

If it be asked why deal with the matter at all until the 
children have grown up, and until they have sense enough 
to know the difference between good and evil, the answer 
must be, first, that some people, although they attain the 
years of four score and ten fail to reach the vantage 
ground here spoken of, and again, it will not be possible 
to understand the Christian dispensation without having 
some understanding of sin. "Without this, atonement 
would be meaningless, and all the work of redemption 
would remain a sealed book. For these and other reasons 
which will occur at once to the teacher, we must deal with 
the matter of sin as rapidly and as thoroughly as circum- 
stances will permit, but the belief is here expressed that 
we must make haste slowly in this matter more than in 
anything else that we are called upon to teach children. 

SUPPLEMENTARY WoBK 

During the first few months of the first grade the 
teacher, not the text-book, must supply the child with 
appropriate thought-material. Through question, con- 
versation, and appropriate story she must organize more 
thoroughly the thought-material which the children al- 
ready possess and she must minister day by day to its 
further development. She has many other offices to per- 
form for the children during the same time. Some of 
these are discussed in other chapters. She must seek to 
perfect the children's pronunciation; she must develop 
their power of easy, unconscious self-expression ; she must 
correct their grammar and their enunciation; she must 



THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 199 

minister to their health and try to secure in the children 
erect carriage., muscular power and easy, graceful move- 
ment. But in the midst of these various occupations there 
should run a definite plan of thought-development. The 
children are unable to read for themselves in those early 
school days, and so they must depend upon the teacher 
wholly for the food which their minds crave and which 
they need quite as imperatively as for their physical 
growth they need an abundant supply of suitable food. 

Aim. It is needless to say that this thought-material 
must not be selected with a view to the child's present 
interest only. Everything that is done for a child must 
be tested by at least two criteria : how will it meet the 
child's present interest and capacity: does it lead by 
the most direct path to the mental and moral stature that 
is the goal of all our efforts in a Catholic school! 

Qualities of the Text-Book. To lay down the lines 
along which the process of mental development should be 
conducted is the first duty of the text-book or series of 
text-books which is employed in the school. If this feature 
of the book is out of harmony with our ideals, then, no 
matter what else may be said in their favor, they should be 
excluded from the school. To map out the complex and in- 
terlacing lines of thought-development along which the 
child mind should proceed, to give to each its correct em- 
phasis, not to anticipate nor lag behind in any vitally im- 
portant matter, to determine the form suited to each stage 
of the child's mental unfolding. — all this is too laborious a 
task and requires too high a skill in psychology and too 
wide a range of knowledge in character building and 
academic content to make it safe to entrust it to the un- 
aided efforts of the primary teacher. 



200 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

It is only right and proper that the author of a text- 
book which is to go into the hands of generations of the 
little ones of the fold of Christ should bring to the task 
adequate preparation and give to it sufficient time and 
thought to insure against grave errors. Moreover, the 
text-book should call forth comment and criticism from 
the philosopher, and the psychologist, from the profes- 
sional educator, from bishop, pastor and principal, as 
well as from the rank and file of the teachers who may 
use the book. It should, accordingly, express the wisdom 
of the many rather than the intelligence of the one. The 
authorship of the primary text-books used in our schools 
is, therefore, a matter of the highest importance. 

The Author, The author should be known ; his qualifi- 
cations and his position should stand as a guarantee for 
his work; he should know Catholic ideals and Catholic 
theology, not in a superficial way but thoroughly and inti- 
mately; otherwise he cannot give to Catholic doctrines 
and practices the proper place in the unfolding mind of 
the child. His qualifications as a psychologist and an edu- 
cator should give us assurance that he is not bringing a 
tyro 's skill to bear upon a task which concerns the moral, 
religious and intellectual life of the multitudes of our 
children who congregate in our classrooms to be formed 
in the image of Jesus Christ. 

The text-book should be tested carefully and conscien- 
tiously by competent teachers who are prepared to act in 
sympathy with its ideals and to co-operate with its 
methods. It should be carefully scrutinized by all who 
are interested in the intellectual and religious welfare 
of the children. If errors be found in it, attention should 



THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 201 

be called to them and correction secured, or measures 
should be taken to procure a more worthy text-book. 

The Teacher. The text-book in all phases of educa- 
tion is important, but nowhere does it begin to have the 
importance that attaches to it in the primary grades. As 
the pupil approaches maturity of mind, he should grow 
increasingly independent of both text-book and teacher. 
But in the early stages of development, such as are rep- 
resented in the primary grades, the principle of author- 
ity is dominant and both teacher and pupil should depend 
on the text-book for guidance. If the teacher declares 
her independence of the book and its methods, she de- 
stroys unity and undermines authority; two evils which 
cannot be compensated for by any fancied excellence of 
lines of development which the individual teacher may 
elect to follow. 

Oral Work. All the oral work which precedes the use 
of the child's first book should be determined with refer- 
ence to the book. It must form an adequate preparation 
for the thought-material presented in the book no less 
than for the vocabulary and phrase employed in it. Hence 
this work, while for the time being it occupies the center 
of the field, may rightly be called supplementary. 

As the children learn to read, the story telling and oral 
work should gradually give place to supplementary read- 
ing, but in the one case as in the other, the developmental 
phases of thought presented in the text-book should be 
the governing influence. The business of supplementary 
work of all kinds is to supplement ; it should prepare for 
the thought and the language of the text-book ; its effect 
should be to heighten the interest in the central theme; 
it must never lead in a divergent direction. To set up 



202 TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 

other lines of interest in competition will necessarily 
weaken the work in hand and may succeed in defeating it 
completely. 

Great care should be expended in securing symmetry 
in the text-book. Each line of thought must be given its 
proportionate place in the developing whole and no less 
care should be exercised in determining the supple- 
mentary work. It would be well, of course, if the teacher 
possessed a guide in this matter, for it often happens 
that she finds herself compelled to use matter that she 
clearly perceives is not in line with the thought or the 
plan of the text-book through sheer inability to find 
suitable material. Child story literature is abundant at 
present, but it has not been developed with any distinct 
view to Christian aims. Much of it might be made to 
render good service if it were properly edited and the 
right sequence and correlation indicated. 

The Fairy Tale. The story of King Tantalus, as told 
in the Golden Porch, is a splendid presentation of the 
story of the Fall of Man, but its effect in the third grade, 
where the Catholic Education Series is employed, would 
be to undermine the children's faith and to make them 
look at the account of the scenes in the Garden of Eden as 
given in Religion, Second Book and Third Book, as myths, 
whereas, the same theme as presented in the beginning 
of the Third Reader has quite the opposite effect. The 
children's attention, in the story of the Coward and his 
Wife, is fastened on modern life and they readily com- 
prehend the lesson and discard the setting. 

Again, in the preparation of this series of primary 
books, care was exercised to keep virtue in the fore- 
ground, to present it in bright, attractive form that sug- 



THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 203 

gests imitative activity, and as the thought of sin gradu- 
ally grows, care was taken to keep its face veiled, to con- 
fine it to a secondary role and to make it unlovable so 
that it might repel instead of attract. The children's 
imitative tendency is appealed to long enough and with 
sufficient effectiveness to build up strong habits of 
thought and action in the right direction before subject- 
ing their inherited tendency towards evil to the test. All 
this care, however, might easily be rendered fruitless by 
an injudicious teacher who should elect to tell the children 
in the first grade stories of wrong conduct and sinful 
actions in some fairy tale. The children would undoubt- 
edly be interested; they love "bluggy" stories, and 
naughty conduct has a great charm for the mischief- 
loving child of Adam. By indulging these tendencies, 
however, the aim maintained throughout these books in 
the development of the proper attitude towards sin would 
be in a large measure defeated. 

Supplementary Reading. When the children, as hap- 
pens sometimes in the second grade, attain sufficient abil- 
ity to read for themselves, it will not do to give them 
work along a line that is wholly foreign to the text-book. 
The Eskimo Stories, for example, form consistent supple- 
mentary reading for the second book of the Social and 
Industrial Science Series. It pictures Eskimo life on a 
close par with the gross bestiality of the Cave Dwellers. 
If the end we had in view were the bestializing of the 
children, such text-books and supplementary readers as 
these would be entirely in place. But it is inconceivable 
that any intelligent teacher in our Catholic schools could 
permit the use of such books by the little ones entrusted 
to her care. 



204 teachees manual of pkimaey methods 

Deamatizing 

It would be hard to over-estimate the value of drama- 
tization in the primary grades. This truth, however, is 
so well recognized that it is scarcely necessary to dwell 
on it here. Children at the age of six are still under the 
dominance of imitation and they understand but little of 
anything that does not find expression in their activities. 
They are, in consequence, natural dramatists. At a much 
earlier period we find the child in the nursery turning 
himself into all sorts of possible and impossible things. 
He is a baby being put to bed by an older sister who 
has for him a new interest in her role of mother. He 
is a choo-choo car, a horse pulling a cart, a fire-engine, 
or anything else that arrests his attention and engraves 
its picture upon his sensory areas. 

When he comes to school for the first time, therefore, 
the teacher does not have to make a beginning in dra- 
matics : it is one of his chief avenues for the acquisition 
of knowledge and for self-expression, and in both of 
these capacities the teacher should continue to use it for 
some time. When he begins to use his first book, he 
should dramatize the nature studies at least, and a drama- 
tization of the religious lesson will often prove helpful. 
Care should be taken, however, not to turn everything 
into play. It would be well that all the domestic studies 
should be acted out in real life at home. These stories 
were written with that end in view and the teacher would 
do well to co-operate with the text in this matter. The 
religious lessons, of course, should be lived out also and 
should be treated as most serious affairs. But the chil- 
dren's imaginations may be stimulated and they may 



THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 205 

learn to catch the real inward meaning better by drama- 
tizing certain of the scenes, and in so doing they are 
laying the foundation for an intimate comprehension of 
the liturgy which will be explicitly developed in the fourth 
and fifth grades. 

As the children pass up through the grades they will 
become more and more independent of dramatization, but 
this exercise will never wholly lose its value for them. It 
is to be hoped that some one equipped for the task will 
prepare a number of plays or little dramas that might 
be used with profit in the higher grammar grades. They 
would be welcome in our schools and might easily be 
made very serviceable. 

Play and Work. The natural tendencies of the child 
make it necessary for him to play out the thing first, but 
no sooner has he done this than he begins to crave for 
opportunity to test his new knowledge in the world of 
reality and earnestness. Too much play does not appeal 
to the child : it destroys his appetite for it and takes away 
his pleasure in it, and, moreover, it tends to unfit him for 
serious occupations in a busy world of labor and of strife. 

We give here a few outlines for dramatizations which 
have been developed by primary teachers using these 
books. They are intended merely as suggestions. They 
might easily be improved upon and of course their num- 
ber should be indefinitely increased. 

For Physical Culture. The first dramatization em- 
ployed during the period preliminary to the use of Eelig- 
ion, First Book, should be largely exercises in physical 
culture, for the dominant feature of the work of these 
early days should be the adjusting of the child to his 
physical environment. The children should be kept active 



206 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

during a great portion of the time for reasons that have 
been set forth elsewhere. We should not, however, lose 
sight of the principle of co-ordination and hence these 
physical culture exercises, while introduced for the pur- 
pose of physical culture, should also serve to prepare 
proper apperception masses for the reception of the 
thought-material contained in the first chapters of the 
child's first book. The following outline will illustrate 
this two-fold purpose and may suggest to the teacher 
other exercises for the accomplishment of the same ends : 

Building a Nest. Play that you are the wind and 
scatter little bits of straw, leaves, dry grass, twigs and 
feathers over the fields and roads of the school room 
(this may well be put in the first person and the teacher 
should lead in the work; this would be particularly true 
if it were the first of similar exercises to be indulged 
in). Fly to your nests like father robin does (run on tip- 
toe, and imitate the movement of wings with your arms). 

(The children are to be arranged in their seats in six 
rows across the room.) Eow 1 will be wind fairies this 
morning and scatter all over the roads (aisles between 
the seats) and fields (open spaces) of the school room bits 
of grass, leaves, feathers, etc. (skipping and waving of 
arms). Row 2 will be robins and gather up these bits 
and make a nest out of them (a branch for the purpose 
should be provided) ; rows 3, 4, 5 and 8 will be sparrows, 
blue birds, etc., and fly around the room to see the nest. 

(As this exercise is performed on successive days, row 
3 takes the place of row 1, etc.) 

For Emotional Culture. The transition from actions 
to the feelings associated with them is easily made. To 
give proper expression to a sentiment is one of the ways 



THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 207 

of calling it up into consciousness. If the teacher will 
assume the attitude of anger, she may readily perceive 
the effect upon her consciousness. The liturgy of the 
Catholic Church takes advantage of this in insisting upon 
appropriate bodily attitudes for the expression of relig- 
ious feelings and emotions. The congregation stand at 
the Gospel like soldiers at attention, expressing by their 
attitude their willingness to obey promptly the words of 
the Master; they kneel in adoration and strike their 
breasts in contrition, etc. It is, therefore, in keeping 
that the children should be prepared from an early day 
to take part naturally in the worship of the Church. The 
following exercise is intended as an immediate prepara- 
tion for the religious lesson, a Welcome to Jesus, in the 
first part of the first book. 

A Welcome to Jesus. Place a statue of our Lord in 
the front of the room where all the children can see it. 
Let the children in row 1 be roses and lilies and kneel 
across the front of the room a foot and half or two feet 
apart, their heads bowed and their hands joined; let the 
children in row 2 be sunbeams and raindrops and skip in 
and out among the flowers, touching them lightly on the 
heads as they pass. The flowers, at this, raise their heads 
and look at the statue; raise their hands sideways and 
rise to a standing position. Let the children in row 3 be 
trees and stand a little behind the flowers with their hands 
clasped high before their faces ; let them sway gently to 
and fro, as the trees might be supposed to do in a light 
breeze. Let the children in rows 4, 5 and 6 be birds ; let 
them fly in and out among the trees, chirping and flapping 
their wings. 



208 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

The physical culture exercise is here the dominant ele- 
ment, but while it provides for graceful movements and 
for imitation of the things around them, it also leads 
towards devotional expression, something of the rever- 
ence which the thought of Jesus inspires will be present 
and will help to subdue the action and to produce graceful 
movements. In this way the religious element, from the 
very first, is given its proper place as a controlling center, 
influencing imagination, subduing action and controlling 
speech. 

June Time. Let the children in rows 1 and 2 be the 
brook ; 1 facing the front of the room and 2 the back, each 
child clasps hands with the one in front of her, running 
lightly on tiptoe up and down the aisles and showing how 
the little brook ran in and out through the fields. Let the 
children in row 3 be sunbeams and those in row 4 be 
shadows. These children should skip softly around the 
room in imitation of the play of light and shadow over 
the meadows. The children in rows 5 and 6 should play 
the part of baby robin and one by one leave the home nest 
and go to the front of the room, while the teacher might 
well play the role of mother robin. This exercise is in- 
tended to accompany the nature study in the third part 
of Eeligion, First Book. It will, accordingly, fall in 
spring days and the exercise will be in keeping with the 
season. It is physical exercise, correlated with the culti- 
vation of poetic imagination, and helps to put the children 
in the right attitude towards nature, towards the flowers 
and the birds, the running brook, and the play of sun- 
shine and shadow over the buttercup-laden meadows. It 
is such training as this, even though it lacked the teacher's 
guiding hand, to which we are indebted for a Shakespeare, 



THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 209 

a Wordsworth and many another sweet songster, who 
would be so sorely missed in the world to-day. 

The Rescue. Choose from among the children Mr. 
Robin, Mrs. Robin, four Baby Robins, and a cat. Let 
Mrs. Robin be busy feeding one baby; the other babies 
are hopping about; two baby robins hop away to the 
bush. The cat, hiding in the bush, creeps slowly round 
until he almost reaches the babies. As soon as the babies 
notice him they cry out "Save us, save us." Mr. and 
Mrs. Robin fly to their aid singing "cheer up." The 
father robin scolds the cat, who steals away, while the 
mother robin soothes and quiets the babies. In this exer- 
cise physical culture is carried over into drama, more 
conspicuously than in any of the preceding stories, and 
the effort is made to keep close to the story in the text- 
book and drive home its lesson. 

The Storm at Sea. Let the children in row 1 be wind 
fairies ; let those in row 2 be storm fairies. Let the chil- 
dren in rows 3, 4, 5 and 6 be the friends of Jesus in the 
boat. The wind fairies run lightly and slowly up and 
down the aisles waving their arms gently, while the chil- 
dren in rows 3, 4, 5 and 6 make the rowing movements in 
their seats. The wind fairies run faster and the storm 
fairies join them, waving their arms more forcefully, 
whereupon rows 3, 4, 5 and 6 stand up and row harder, 
bending their bodies at the waist. At a given signal, the 
wind and the storm fairies run softly to their seats and 
the rowers sit down. These exercises are intended, among 
other things, to help the children to visualize scenes de- 
scribed in oral or written language, and this help is 
needed at a time when there is such great danger that 
the children will fasten their attention on the word forms 



210 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 

and fail totally to enter into the thing signified, a 
calamity which would serve to sterilize most of onr efforts 
and to leave the children in a condition almost as helpless 
as the poor innocent victims of phonic methods who, at 
the end of their primary year, can call words glibly, and 
read sentences with a fatal fluency, while their minds 
starve for the thought-material which should have gone 
into the formation of mind and character. 

The Child His Own Dramatist. In the early stages of 
teaching dramatizing, as in the early stages of teaching 
anything else, the child depends wholly upon the teacher. 
Authority is the only evidence he knows, but it is pre- 
cisely the aim of education to lead the child from com- 
plete dependence to complete independence. No teacher 
worthy of the name, will rest content with the children's 
merely doing what they are told in detail, and saying 
what is put in their mouths to say. Initiative and orig- 
inality should belong not alone to the adult but to the 
child, due proportion, of course, being preserved. Now, 
the primary grades are the seeding time, and the harvest 
of adult life will depend very largely upon the seeds that 
are planted and upon the way they are warmed into life. 

The children in the second grade at the latest, should 
be led to make a beginning in the dramatization of the 
subject-matter supplied to them by the text-book and by 
their supplementary reading. It has already been said 
that dramatization is an instinct and one that has a 
rather vigorous if unculitivated development during in- 
fancy, but the things the child dramatizes in this early 
phase, are the actions which he sees and hears ; it is quite 
another matter to be able to body forth the scenes that 



THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 211 

he has witnessed only through the printed page, or the 
oral story. 

Miss Dunlap contributed the following pages on this 
subject to The Catholic Educational Review. We repro- 
duce them here in the belief that they will stimulate many 
of our teachers to study the matter a little more closely 
than heretofore, and that they will give us in a short time 
a series of little dramas that will prove helpful in our 
second and third grades : 

Silver Brook. Oftentimes a teacher of one of the lower 
grades finds her class in reading come to a sorry pass. 
The children read haltingly a limited number of simple 
stories. They are tired of these stories, they dislike 
them, and yet the teacher knows they have not the ability 
to go on to new and harder lessons. Then must be sought 
a device to invest the old stories with new interest. 

Select a brief reading lesson which contains a dialogue 
between two or three characters. For instance one might 
take the story of ' ' Silver Brook, ' ' on page 110 in the Sec- 
ond Eeader of the "Beligion" series. Treat as a unit 
the first part of the lesson which contains the conversa- 
tion between the brook, the rabbit, and the squirrel. The 
teacher must first choose a good reader from her class to 
read the lesson through the statement that Silver Brook 
"leaped from rock to rock down the mountainside." 
Then the teacher asks, "Who speaks first in this lesson V 

Child. The rabbit. 

Teacher (writing "Babbit" upon the blackboard). 
What are the exact words the rabbit says 1 

Child. What are you in such a hurry for? asked the 
rabbit. Stop a while and play with us. 



212 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PBIMAKY METHODS 

Teacher. Oh, no ! I want the exact words the rabbit 
says and no others. 

Child (after a struggle). What are yon in snch a 
hurry for ? Stop a while and play with us. 

(Teacher writes these words of the rabbit next to the 
word "Babbit.") 

Teacher. Who speaks next ? 

Child. Silver Brook. 

The teacher thus continues to cull the words of the dia- 
logue from the narrative page until she reaches Silver 
Brook's good-bye. Then she may suggest to the children : 
"Don't you suppose the rabbit and the squirrel said good- 
bye to the brook? What did the rabbit say?" Every class 
has an inventive child who can supply, l ' Good-bye, Silver 
Brook. I wish I could go with you, ' ' or something better. 

Teacher. What did the squirrel say? 

Child (imagining). Good-bye, little brook. Come 
again some day. 

The dialogue then stands thus upon the blackboard: 

Babbit. What are you in such a hurry for? Stop a 
while and play with us. 

Silver Brook. I cannot stop. I have been away a long 
time and I must hurry home. 

Squirrel. You can't fool us. You are running away 
now just as fast as you can. I saw you coming out of 
your home in the ice cave up in the mountain this morning. 

Silver Brook. Yes, I came out of the ice cave this 
morning, but my home is in the great wide ocean. There 
the waves roll in freedom and the ships spread their 
white wings and fly before the wind. All beautiful things 
come from my home and they must all go back to it. 

Babbit. If your home is so beautiful why did you 
leave it? 

Silver Brook. That's a long story. One day the sun- 
beams coaxed me to go with them up into the clouds. 
Then the south wind carried me away over the land, over 
the lakes and rivers, up into the mountains. There the 
north wind caught me and turned me into snow crystals 



THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 213 

and I could not move all winter. Yesterday, the sunbeams 
found me and set me free. Good-bye, my little friends, I 
must hurry home. 

Eabbit. Good-bye, Silver Brook. I wish I could go 
with you. 

Squirrel. Good-bye, little brook. Come again some 
day. 

Now, the dramatization completed, the teacher should 
have the children shut their books. She selects Johnny 
for the rabbit, Tommy for the squirrel, and Susie for the 
brook. The three children then read the dialogue from 
the blackboard. Then the teacher selects another group 
of three, and then another group of three, reading the 
dialogue several times from the blackboard. 

Next the teacher must make her most important selec- 
tion of three children with the dramatic instinct to really 
act the parts. 

Let Silver Brook skip around the room singing the 
little song "The Stream" on page 131 if the class already 
knows it. If the child is too self-conscious to sing alone, 
let the whole class sing the song while the brook skips. 
Let the rabbit and the squirrel hop from different corners 
of the room, rabbit and squirrel wise. It will not be 
necessary for the teacher to demonstrate the motion. The 
child knows how. Brook skipping, rabbit and squirrel 
hopping, let the three little actors come to a standstill in 
front of the class and hold their conversation. The parley 
over, they may skip and hop away to their seats. 

Now, erase the dialogue from the blackboard and let 
the children read it from the books, a different reader 
for every character. The teacher must train them to 
omit ' ' asked the rabbit, ' ' and ' ' said Silver Brook. ' ' 



214 TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

As a final step the teacher may have the lesson read in 
its entirety just as it is printed in the book, and it is 
probable that with the impetus of the interest which the 
dramatization has given the first part of the story, the 
latter part will likewise be read with spirit. 

Now the children may be left to themselves with their 
books to make a written exercise of the lesson. The 
teacher should write ' l Rabbit, ' ' " Squirrel, ' ' and ' ' Silver 
Brook" upon the blackboard and let the children fill out 
the dialogue upon their papers. 

Written above is the whole elaborate process of the first 
lesson of the series which is to make the child "his own 
dramatist. ' ' It will be necessary for the teacher to write 
out the whole dialogue of other stories for several days 
before she feels sure that every child in her class is strong 
enough to make his own dialogue from a new lesson. 
When that day arrives, the teacher may write the names 
of the characters on the blackboard and leave the chil- 
dren to their own devices. 

There are several lessons in the Second "Religion" 
volume which are excellent for this work. "The Three 
Little Milkweed Sisters ' ' may fly around the schoolroom 
on their tiptoes waving their arms the while. "The 
Fairy's Visit" to the little fir contains a good dialogue. 

The Third Reader of the "Catholic Educational 
Series" also offers good material. The story of "The 
Coward and His Wife" may be taken in fragments. Let 
the children work out the dialogue between Bobo and the 
crawfish and again between Bobo and Zan. 

Again, the adaptation from Cardinal Wiseman's 
"Fabiola" contains conversations between Fabiola and 
Syra and between Fabiola and St. Agnes which are good 



THOUGHT DEVELOPMENT 215 

for the written dialogue but have not so good an acting 
quality. The story of "William Tell," however, has 
spirited dialogues between William Tell and the soldier, 
Tell and Gessler, and Tell and his son. Here, indeed, is 
a story which is good for careful dramatization and act- 
ing in its entirety. 



CHAPTER XVI 
DEFECTIVE METHODS OF PRIMARY READING 

In the transition through which we are passing from 
a condition of society in which the home was the indus- 
trial as well as the social unit, many of the old land- 
marks are being swept away. The home is being weak- 
ened in many ways; the adult members of the home 
group are less closely united in interest and occupation, 
and it may be less firmly held in the bonds of love. But 
the children are the ones to suffer most. A large portion 
of their education was obtained in the home in the old 
days from their participation in the life of the home and 
in its varied occupations. To-day, the school is called 
upon to do for the children what the school was never 
before expected to do. It is not surprising that in the 
changes and readjustments called for in' the work of the 
school mistakes would be made. It is none the less to be 
regretted, however, that these mistakes should prove 
injurious to the mind and character of the little ones. 

A consideration of primary methods of reading under 
the present circumstances must take into account the 
changed conditions in the home life of the children, the 
method employed in the text-book as well as that used by 
the teachers having charge of the work. Moreover, the 
method must be brought into harmony with the findings 
of science and it must be tested not alone with reference 
to immediate results, but in view of the lasting effects 
which its employment is likely to have upon the mental 
life of the pupil. 



pbimary beading 217 

Changed Conditions 

In the old days, when the duties and responsibilities 
of the industrial home developed the character of the 
child and built up vigorous apperception masses from 
constant contact with an objective world, any method, 
however formal, might be employed in the school to teach 
him the art of reading. Under those circumstances 
alphabet and phonic methods frequently failed to destroy 
the child's interest in reality. A few hours drill a day 
was pitted against the rest of the child's life. And so 
the child's interest in the things of an objective world 
remained dominant and the strength of character which 
he developed in an environment filled with real struggles 
frequently proved sufficient to carry him through the 
dullest and dryest drills of the alphabet method and, 
where this failed, the birch was called into requisition as 
an efficient supplement. 

To-day all this is changed ; the teacher is not allowed to 
use coercive methods on ' ' Mama 's Darling ' ' ; not only is 
the birch relegated to the lumber room, but every 
semblance of coercion must be banished in deference to 
the softer methods used in the home. Obviously these 
changes in the child's home environment must be reck- 
oned with in the school. Methods which succeeded under 
the old conditions may well prove inadequate in the 
present situation. One thing is clear ; if coercion, which 
was necessary under old conditions, is removed at present, 
its place must be supplied by an increased interest in the 
objects of study, otherwise, the work of education will 
fail. And secondly, if the sense-training given in the 
homes of a former generation is no longer to be had in 



218 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

the homes of our children, it must be supplied in the 
school in some way, else the work of education will be 
directed towards form without content, and the result 
will be hopeless inefficiency in the pupils, when, on leaving 
school, they are confronted with real situations. 

In the old days the most incompetent teacher in the 
school was assigned to the baby class and the efficiency 
of the teacher was recognized by promoting her to a 
higher grade. Academic content, rather than profes- 
sional training, was the standard by which a teacher's 
value was rated, and in this fact may be found the reason 
for assigning the poorest teacher to the lowest class. 
Anyone was supposed to be able to make the children 
recite their a, b, c's and to hear them spell their words 
of one or two syllables, but to-day all this is changed. The 
fact is now generally recognized that a successful pri- 
mary teacher is not easily obtained, and that the highest 
professional training is needed in the lowest grades. 

Unity of Method 

In the teaching of reading, as in the teaching of other 
subjects, the teacher and the text-book which she is 
compelled to use should harmonize. Good results can 
hardly be expected when the method employed by the 
teacher is counteracted by an opposite method in the 
child's text-book. Clearly, if the teacher's methods 
are faulty, they should be corrected, or she should be 
removed from the school. This is particularly true in the 
primary grades where, admittedly, so much depends on 
method. In like manner, when the method employed in 
the text-book is faulty it should be corrected, or the text- 



PRIMABY READING 



219 



book should be eliminated from the school. The teacher 
who insists on teaching primary reading by the phonic 
method, should employ primary readers constructed on 
the principles of the phonic method, else she need not 
hope for success. The Catholic Education Series of pri- 
mary text-books was constructed with the explicit pur- 
pose of preventing the development of those things which 
are the central aim of the phonic method, hence, their 
use, as the basis of teaching the phonic method, must 
necessarily prove a failure. 

Readers 

The name "Reader" applied to the books used by the 
children in the first and second grades is either a mis- 
nomer, perpetuating an ancient error, such as is perpetu- 
ated by the phrases " sunrise' ' and " sunset,' ' or else it 
implies the embodiment of a principle in the books which 
is in open conflict with current doctrines in psychology and 
in linguistic science. An examination of the primers and 
first readers that were in general use a few decades ago, 
and which may still be found in some of our schools, 
reveals the fact that the name " reader" is not under- 
stood as a misnomer. These books were constructed on 
the principle that the child should be rendered familiar 
with the letters of the alphabet and with their varied 
combinations in syllables, words and sentences before 
any attempt should be made to give him thought ma- 
terial through the instrumentality of written language. 
In these books the child's interest was directed exclusively 
to the verbal series. The real series was entirely ban- 
ished from his consciousness, or it was relegated to a sub- 
ordinate place. 



220 TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PBIMABY METHODS 

In response to the demands of science, a new type of 
primary book is being produced to-day in which the 
thought element predominates from the first, and in which 
the attempt is consistently made to teach the art of read- 
ing as a means to an end. On the basis of this funda- 
mental principle we may divide current primary books 
into two groups and, moreover, the first factor in our 
decision concerning the availability of a primary book 
must be our attitude towards this fundamental principle. 

Why do we teach our children to read? It is possible 
to answer this question in two ways. We teach them to 
read because, as adults, the art of reading will prove a 
valuable asset in the struggle for existence. It may en- 
able John to earn his living as a proof-reader, and for 
this purpose the more vividly he realizes the form of 
words and sentences, the more readily will he detect mis- 
pelled words, broken or inverted type, etc., but every 
time his attention wanders from the words to the thought 
back of them he is liable to pass over unchallenged some 
error in typography. If, therefore, the end we have in 
view in teaching children to read is that they may, on 
leaving school, become proof-readers, we shall be acting 
quite consistently in holding their attention to the form 
of words instead of to the meaning that lies back of the 
printed page. 

But, if our purpose in teaching the art of reading is to 
enable both the boy and the man to profit by the wisdom 
that is enshrined in our literature, then our aim must be 
to render the thought element as vivid as possible and 
every intrusion of the verbal element upon consciousness 
must be regarded as a defect. Now, the percentage of 
children who are destined to become proof-readers is so 



PRIMARY READING 221 

small as to be practically a negligible quantity and we 
may leave them out of consideration for the present. In 
teaching the art of reading, therefore, the goal of our 
ambition must be to enable the reader to grasp the thought 
back of the printed page as strongly, as quickly and with 
as little expenditure of mental energy as may be, and this 
goal, once having been decided upon, must determine the 
means to be employed. 

Word Consciousness 

It is a well-known psychological fact that of two alter- 
nate mental states the one first to be established tends 
to maintain its position at the center of consciousness 
and to banish the other to the indirect field of mental 
vision. The conclusion is obvious. It is a grave mistake 
so to direct the child's attention to the written forms that 
word consciousness may result. The inevitable effect of 
such procedure is to develop in the pupil the proof-reader 
habit of looking at words instead of through them at the 
thoughts. Pupils that have been taught in this manner 
leave school with a screen built up between their minds 
and the thoughts that were bequeathed to them in the 
literature of the world. 

It should not be necessary to invoke authority in a mat- 
ter that so plainly appeals to intelligence, but the prin- 
ciple at stake is so fundamental, and the consequences of 
its violation are so disastrous, that it may not be out of 
place to invite the attention of the teacher to the position 
taken on the matter by other educators. The dean of 
the school of pedagogy of New York University, writing 
in the Atlantic Journal of Education, January, 1909, says : 

"The habit of unconsciousness of the page in reading 



222 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

makes for speed and for thoroughness in grasping the 
thought. All needless consciousness of the page robs the 
mind of just so much power to grasp the thought * * * 
Words are like window panes — they are things to look 
through, not things to look at. The more invisible they 
are, the more perfectly will they serve their purpose. 
Any method in teaching a child to read which makes him 
needlessly conscious of words, which fosters in him the 
habit of needlessly scrutinizing them, or of analyzing 
them needlessly into their component letters or sounds, 
develops the proof-reader habit of mind, and may make 
the progress of reading a needlessly conscious one all 
through life. The child must, of course, scrutinize new 
words sufficiently to remember them, but any analysis 
or inspection of words beyond what is necessary for this 
purpose is unquestionably bad * * * Everything 
which in later life should be done unconsciously, should 
be taught in the school unconsciously or with a minimum 
degree of consciousness. It is bad doctrine to say that 
such processes should be raised to consciousness and then 
be made unconscious by practice. The difficulty is that 
in most people such processes never become unconscious. 
The child learns to pronounce and to speak his mother 
tongue mainly by unconscious imitation, and he speaks 
it unconsciously; the adult learns to speak a foreign 
language by a process that is keenly conscious and 
he is seldom able to speak it without watching his 
speech * * * 

' ' Illustrations from school and from life might be 
multiplied indefinitely to show how important it is to 
teach unconsciously, so far as possible, what must in 
life be done unconsciously. Beading is one of these 



PRIMARY READING 



223 



things. The phonic and alphabet methods, used at the 
beginning, are likely to lead to a wholly unnecessary de- 
gree of word-consciousness in reading. The fact that 
they give the child early the power of finding out the 
pronunciation of new words by himself, does not neces- 
sarily recommend them. If they develop the habit of 
looking at words instead of through them, this result 
would show not in the primary grades, but in the middle 
and upper grades of the elementary schools where it is 
attributed to other causes.' ' 

Here we have one phase of the failure of the elemen- 
tary school traced back to a hitherto unsuspected source 
in the primary grades. If this contention be correct, 
the methods of teaching reading employed by the primary 
teacher and embodied in the primary text-books may 
give us the solution of the old puzzle: Why do the chil- 
dren lose interest in school before they reach the seventh 
grade, and why are they so anxious to escape from school 
even when such escape means entering the field of hard 
manual labor! 

When the children's interest rests in the verbal series, 
where it centers around the combination of letters into 
syllables, and of syllables into words, it may be pre- 
served during the first two or three years of school life, 
but by the end of that time this source of interest is 
likely to be exhausted and the sources of enduring in- 
terest in the thought material have in such cases not 
only been neglected, but they have been positively ex- 
cluded from the child's mind by the screen built up 
through the habit of looking at the words instead of 
through them. Again, among the indictments often 
brought against the primary schools of our day is fre- 



224 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

quently included the charge that the children are unable 
to think for themselves or to take the thought from the 
printed page and clothe it in their own words. This 
failure would also find its explanation in the employ- 
ment in the primary grades of text-books and methods 
which aim solely at the development of word conscious- 
ness. 

Phonic and alphabet methods run counter to several 
other truths of psychology that have been thoroughly 
established. These methods assume that the right way 
to proceed in teaching the children to read is to develop 
in their minds first the power to recognize letters, words 
and sentences. In a word, they aim at teaching the 
child to read first and then hope that he may be able 
to find the thought back of the printed page, whereas 
the whole current of modern scientific thought runs in 
the opposite direction. The biologist tells us that in race 
history organs were developed through successful func- 
tioning and practical men have always held the same 
truth which they expressed in such axioms as Fabricando 
fit faber. No amount of preliminary instruction added 
to finger exercises and drills on the scales would make 
a musician, and so it is contended, that the child should 
learn to read by reading and not by the study of alpha- 
bets, syllables and key-words. 

The Alphabet Method 

This method runs counter to the principles just de- 
scribed and to other principles of scarcely less impor- 
tance. If the method was employed in the past without 
producing pernicious results, the reason for this is to 
be sought in the home conditions of the past which 



PRIMARY READING 225 

no longer obtain and also in the great amount of time 
that was formerly devoted to spelling drills, time which 
can no longer be afforded, owing to the new demands 
that are being made upon the school. The alphabet 
method began with the ultimate elements of our analysis 
of written language and of these fragments it sought 
to build up letters into words and words into sentences, 
but it made no appeal to the interest attaching to the 
subject matter. The child learned his alphabet and his 
monosyllabic and polysyllabic words solely through the 
application of voluntary attention, intensified by the 
hope of reward or the stimulus of fear. A great deal 
has been written and said against this method and in 
its worst form it has in fact passed out of use. The 
child, instead of learning language by combining its 
elements into larger and still larger units, proceeds in 
just the opposite direction. He begins with the utterance 
and the words gradually detach themselves as separate 
entities, owing to the fact that they are found in varied 
positions and in various utterances. 

The Phonic Method 

This method possesses certain apparent advantages 
over the alphabet method, and it is these advantages 
that have given it vogue with the present generation of 
primary teachers. It interests the children. The key 
method offers an interesting and at times a somewhat 
exciting game to the children. The ultimate result is a 
rapid progress in the child's ability to find the pronuncia- 
tion of new words. It is not surprising, therefore, that 
the phonic method should have been eagerly substituted 



226 TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PBIMABY METHODS 

for the dry and uninteresting alphabet drill of the old 
school. Nevertheless, it should have been obvious to 
anyone acquainted with psychology that, if the child be 
introduced to the art of reading through any form of 
the phonic method, the result will be an intensification 
of word consciousness, the evil which we are trying to 
avoid. In this word consciousness, interest will rest in 
the process of combining word elements instead of rest- 
ing with the thought. The more the children's interest 
is centered on the word forms, the more disastrous will 
be the consequences, and the phonic method arouses 
interest where the alphabet method has no power of 
appeal. 

The Word Method 

The word method, or the sentence method, as it is 
some times called, escapes many of the accusations 
brought against the alphabet and the phonic methods. 
It conforms to the demands of psychology in presenting 
the whole before the parts. The utterance is the natural 
unit of language and it should function for the child as 
a whole. The written utterance should convey to him a 
thought, or a permission to act, or it should be the means 
of conveying his thought to others. The dry and unin- 
teresting drills which in the alphabet or phonic meth- 
ods precede the functioning of the utterance as a whole, 
is entirely absent in this method. The child's power of 
written language, like his lungs, yields results from the 
very first. The organ is perfected by functioning, instead 
of being perfected through years of dry drills in which 
the child had to be sustained by the hope that some time 



PBIMAEY BEADING 



227 



in the future his labor would yield him pleasurable and 
profitable returns. 

It is quite possible, however, to use the word method 
in such a way as to defeat the legitimate purposes of the 
art of reading. This is the case, for instance, when the 
thought is fragmentary and lacking in interest for the 
child and the sentences are used for mere drills. But 
the word method, properly applied, may prove most effi- 
cient in laying for the child the foundations of the art of 
reading. A long step toward this desired result is taken 
when the content selected is of the right kind. 

The word method is essentially a beginner's method. 
It should be employed in the blackboard and chart work 
which precede the use of the child's first book. This 
method relies upon repetition chiefly, for the production 
of the permanent visual image. Association with the 
motor area of the brain is called into play and this 
deepens the sensory image. But when all is said that can 
be said in favor of the word method, it will be admitted 
that progress by its use is slow. 

Whether intentional or not, a second principle soon 
begins to be operative in the word method; that is, the 
principle of association. This gradually gains in effect- 
iveness and by the time the child is ready for the first 
book it is the dominant element, and repetition is relied 
upon for the acquisition of new word images only in a 
secondary capacity. The method is then more properly 
termed the context method. Time and labor will accord- 
ingly be economized if, in the selection of our thought 
material, we preserve continuity and if, in our selection 
of words, we make the fullest possible use of the words 
which the children already possess, to bring home to them 



228 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PBIMARY METHODS 

the meaning of the words which they are in the process 
of acquiring. When the story is so told that the child 
knows from the portion of it which he has already 
learned what the new thought must be, and when he 
knows so many of the words in the sentence that were 
the strange word replaced by a blank, the child would 
supply the right word or its equivalent, association or 
context becomes the child's teacher. In this way words 
are presented again and again in contexts which tell the 
child what the word is which is as yet incompletely 
stamped upon the visual area of his brain. 

The association in this method is always between the 
word and the thought, whereas in the phonic and the 
alphabet methods it is always between word and word. 
The thought system is here built up in continuity. Frag- 
mentary or isolated thoughts are not employed. Stress is 
particularly laid upon preserving the unity while securing 
the development of the thought system, whereas the word 
relationships to each other are merely incidental. 

The word method must be employed in the beginning 
of the first grade work, but it should give place as rapidly 
as possible to the context method. Each primary teacher 
should be able to select her material and her vocabulary 
for these first steps in written language, nevertheless, we 
append to this volume a set of exercises which are cal- 
culated to lead by a direct route to the context method 
of reading and to Eeligion, First Book. There is a fatal 
weakness, however, attending all such attempts of a text- 
book or manual to usurp the function of the teacher. 
These sentences should, in the first place, be drawn spon- 
taneously from the lives of the children and the situation 
in the room at the time of the exercises. No rigid set of 



PBIMAEY BEADING 229 

sentences for blackboard and chart work can ever be de- 
vised that will quite fit into any first grade room. The 
set which is prepared for these books may, however, 
stimulate the teacher to develop sentences freely. In 
any case, they will serve to show the vocabularies that 
should be developed before taking up Eeligion, First 
Book, and they will also indicate in a general way the 
order in which this vocabulary may be profitably de- 
veloped. 



CHAPTER XVII 
THE CONTEXT METHOD OF BEADING 

The context method of reading, as its name indicates, 
rests on the fundamental principle that the context should 
declare to the child the new or unfamiliar word. If a 
blank were substituted for the word, the child should be 
able to supply the word or its equivalent. In this way 
he is taught to seek the thought first and always to 
find the word from the thought. The text used in the 
primary grades for teaching by the context method must 
be constructed especially for the purpose. New words 
must be introduced judiciously in stories which are not 
only composed of familiar words but whose thought ma- 
terial is interesting to the children and in keeping with 
their previous knowledge. The thought material must, 
moreover, be continuous, so that what has been previously 
read may show the child what to expect. 

Association is the fundamental psychological law ap- 
pealed to. But unlike the phonic method, the association 
is of ideas, not of words. The method is in harmony 
with all that has been said in the chapter on thought de- 
velopment. Its appeal is to continuity and unity in the 
unfolding mind of the child. It proceeds from the known 
to the unknown, from the whole to the part, from the im- 
plicit to the explicit, from the latent to the functional, 
thus squaring with fundamental life principles as re- 
vealed in the biological and psychological sciences. 



context method 231 

Wrong Methods 

The work in the primary grades has not heretofore re- 
ceived the attention that it deserves from psychologists 
and educators. It has been left, in large measure, to 
the guidance of young women with limited academic and 
professional training. All that was demanded of the 
primary teacher was, that she keep the children interested 
and that at the end of the year she send them up into the 
higher grade with a reasonable ability to call words. The 
thought development was supposed to belong to a later 
stage. The consequences of this neglect of primary work 
by those competent to deal with it are very serious. The 
worst results are not apparent in the primary grades. 
The effect on the minds of the children of these erroneous 
methods employed at the beginning of the educative 
process does not show to full advantage until the higher 
grades of the grammar school and the high school have 
been reached. The far-reaching evil effects of mistaken 
primary methods will be borne in upon any one who keeps 
abreast of our current educational literature. 

Complaints from entrance examining boards to high 
schools and to colleges in all parts of the country empha- 
size the fact that the children are unable to spell or to 
write their mother-tongue grammatically. The percent- 
age of failure among the eighth grade pupils to add or 
subtract, to multiply, to divide or to spell, was so great 
as to cause a reconstruction of the curriculum in many 
cities. Educational periodicals frequently publish long 
lists of absurd answers from the pupils in the eighth 
grade and high school to prove that the children fail to 
grasp the meaning of what they read. Of course it will 



232 TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PEIMAKY METHODS 

always be possible to pick from the school population 
thoughtless children who will give absurd answers to the 
simplest questions, but those who are familiar with school 
work know that we are here dealing with general con- 
ditions. The existence of these abnormal conditions to- 
day is generally recognized and relief is eagerly sought, 
but before a remedy can be found the causes of the 
trouble must be understood. In the meanwhile remedies 
are necessarily directed to symptoms instead of to the 
disease. 

There are doubtless many contributory causes to the 
evil, such as the laxer discipline of these days, unfavor- 
able home conditions, the excitement of the streets, mov- 
ing pictures, the comic supplement to the Sunday papers, 
etc., but the root of the evil will be found in the methods 
employed in teaching reading and spelling in the primary 
grades. Many lines of evidence lead to this conclusion. 
It is generally accepted that more than ninety per cent of 
our successful men along all lines of scholarship and of 
effective thinking received their elementary education in 
the country district schools, and of these the great major- 
ity learned to read at home where phonics and the mod- 
ern methods of teaching primary reading were unknown. 

Teachers of long experience in our city schools assert 
that in the overwhelming majority of cases the thought- 
ful readers in the higher grades of the grammar school 
were the children who learned to read before coming to 
school. The explanation is not hard to find. These chil- 
dren learned to read by reading for content. Theirs was 
silent, not oral, reading ; the thought, not the words, occu- 
pied the center of their consciousness and new words and 
phrases revealed their meaning to them through the con- 



CONTEXT METHOD 233 

text. When, later on, they attended school the formal 
drills were unable to displace the habits of thought which 
were already established in their minds. Phonic drills 
and language drills of various kinds are in their proper 
place when they are used to perfect that which has al- 
ready taken root in the mind of the child, but when they 
are used as the basic elements in the child's development, 
the results cannot fail to be disastrous. 

The chief cause of the inability of the high school 
pupils to grasp the thought in what they read and to ex- 
press it in their own language, lies in the fact that train- 
ing in oral reading is still regarded by the great majority 
of parents and teachers as the chief staple of the primary 
grades. The end sought by these teachers is the quick 
recognition and proper pronunciation of words. What 
the words may mean to the child is too frequently lost 
sight of. It is taken for granted that when the chidren 
pass up into the higher grades the words will reveal 
their hidden meanings to them. 

It was quite natural, therefore, that phonic methods, 
key methods, or any other methods which proved efficient 
in giving the child the power to find words for himself 
and to pronounce them correctly, were eagerly seized 
upon by our primary teachers. And if the end sought, 
namely, the quick recognition and proper pronunciation 
of words, be granted as correct, but little fault is to be 
found with several of these methods. Indeed, the meth- 
ods succeeded so well and the immediate results were so 
brilliant that the evil was concealed from the teachers. 
It was only when these pupils reached the higher grades 
and exhibited an appalling lack of mental grasp on the 
content of what they read that any question was raised 



234 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PKIMABY METHODS 

as to the correctness of their early training, and even at 
the present hour multitudes of primary teachers are 
wholly oblivious of the fact that by focussing the child's 
mind on words to the neglect of the thought during the 
first two or three years of his school life they set up 
habits of thinking which are likely permanently to impair 
his mental power. 

Whatever may be said concerning the onomatopoetic 
origin of language, it remains true that for the average 
child there is no natural connection between the thought 
and the word which designates it, and yet these two men- 
tal entities must be linked together in such an insepar- 
able union that whenever one of them is called into con- 
sciousness the other will function with it. 

The association here is one that is produced by the 
method of simultaneity, but it should be remembered that 
when one of these elements is in the focus of conscious- 
ness the other remains in the indirect field of mental 
vision. For the man who thinks clearly on any subject 
the words must remain in the indirect field, that is, they 
must be subconscious or semi-conscious only. If they are 
brought into the focus of consciousness they either expel 
the thought element or obscure it. 

The case of the philologist is only an apparent excep- 
tion, for with him words are the object as well as the 
means of thought. 

When the children are taught new words in the so- 
called families, such as bat, cat, hat, mat, rat, they learn 
to associate groups of words from mere accidental resem- 
blances. This practice must not be confounded with word 
families in the philological sense, with which children in 
the primary grades have no concern. These phonic 



CONTEXT METHOD 235 

groups ignore all relationship between the thought ele- 
ments. The association structures built up are purely 
on the verbal side. 

One or two years' continuance in work of this kind 
when the child's mind is most plastic, is sufficient to es- 
tablish a mental attitude of always looking at words and 
associating them with each other instead of looking at 
the thought elements and their congruities or incongrui- 
ties ; and this is precisely what has happened on a large 
scale in our primary grades, and it is there that we must 
look for the cause of the general failure to develop 
thoughtful readers. 

While admitting that effective oral reading is an ac- 
complishment that is far too rare at present among the 
graduates of our elementary schools, there are few, I be- 
lieve, who would dispute the fact that our main purpose 
in teaching the children to read is to enable them to ob- 
tain for themselves the rich inheritance which is trans- 
mitted through written language. To-day a thousand 
adults read in order to master the content of the written 
page, to the one who reads aloud and attempts to inter- 
pret the thoughts of the printed page to an audience. 
Now, it is clearly the business of the school to develop in 
the child the habits and powers of mind which we wish 
him to exercise when he reaches maturity. 

It is so obviously a waste of time, or worse, to teach 
the children during their first three or four years in 
school to look at words and at their likenesses and differ- 
ences instead of at the thoughts which the words should 
reveal to them, and then to expect them to reverse this 
process and suddenly become conscious of and interested 
in the thought elements, that one naturally asks the ques- 



236 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

tion why such methods retain their hold in onr elementary 
schools. The answer is not far to seek. 

The mere mechanical process of oral reading is so easy 
to test, it makes such a ready appeal to inspectors and 
parents, that the more ohscnre powers of the child's mind 
are easily neglected. It is generally assumed, moreover, 
that if the children pronounce the words readily they 
grasp the thought. Many of these children are drilled 
in reading for eight years and yet a majority of them will 
pass alike over that which is intelligible to them and that 
which is not, unconscious of any difference. They do not 
realize that there is any obscurity. They read words 
only. Their powers of reason and apperception are dor- 
mant. 

What wonder that children trained in this way acquire 
a life-long distaste for literature. For the first few years 
the phonic drills are in themselves interesting. The child 
finds amusement in his word keys and his "Chinese puz- 
zles," but when the novelty wears off, the work of the 
school-room is all drudgery and he seeks to escape from 
it as soon as circumstances permit. 

Eemedies 

What is the remedy? Simply to follow the natural 
order. When the average child of six enters school he is 
in possession of a large vocabulary and he employs lan- 
guage with some ease. If the home group uses good lan- 
guage, the child will use good language and he will use it 
readily. It is language of the ear, however, and not of 
the eye, and in learning to read he should learn to use the 
language of the eye with the same ease and with the same 



CONTEXT METHOD 237 

power and, we may add, to do this lie must learn it in the 
same way; that is, by context. The child did not begin 
by memorizing words and then seeking opportunities to 
employ them. Words came to him in context and their 
meaning was revealed to him by the context. When the 
meaning, from having appeared in various contexts, had 
grown sufficiently clear and strong to arise spontaneously 
in consciousness, he used the words to express his own 
thoughts and desires. 

And so, if we would teach him to read in such a way 
that reading may help to develop his mind instead of 
hampering it, we must abolish the practice of having the 
child study new words and memorize them. After he has 
grown familiar with them in the written context, it will 
be time enough to drill him in spelling and pronuncia- 
tion. We must not tempt him into the foolish habit of 
building up a vocabulary from a dictionary instead of 
from the context of correctly written pages. 

Of course this means that our primary text-books must 
be written in the light of these principles and it means 
also that our primary teachers must employ new methods 
which will recognize the natural relationship of means to 
ends between the words and the thoughts for which they 
stand. Our primary text-books should be constructed 
with a clear realization that the child's interest must be 
captured and held continuously by the thought which is 
presented. New words must be introduced in such a way 
that the context will proclaim them to the child; conse- 
quently the vocabulary must be chosen from the most 
vital portion of the child's spoken language, and the 
thought elements must make a strong and clear appeal to 
his experience and to his observation. 



238 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PKIMAEY METHODS 

It will not do, however, to mistake for this childish 
thoughts or the baby talk of the nursery. The thought 
given to the child must not be a fragment, a leaf or a bit 
of bark, it must be a germinal thought that will take deep 
root in his consciousness and imperatively demand room 
for growth and demand related truth for its food. Less 
than this in our primary text-books will not meet our 
present needs. 

If our purpose is to develop in the child a deep relig- 
ious sense that will grow with his growth and will make 
the man a son of God, then the thought materials given 
to the child must be the seeds of truth which the Saviour 
of men brought into the world. 

If we wish the child to grow into a man, strong in his 
love of wife and child and home, and willing to sacrifice 
his life if need be for the good of f ellowmen and for the 
safety and prosperity of the nation, we must plant the 
seeds of these social virtues in the heart of the child. 

If we wish the child to grow into a man of science 
whose deep insight into nature and whose reverence for 
nature 's laws will make him master of the physical world, 
while rendering him an humble worshipper at the feet of 
the Creator, we must lead the steps of the child into the 
sanctuary of the physical world and open his eyes to the 
light of heaven that glistens in the dewdrop and flashes 
in the lightning. 

If we wish the man to thrill to high ideals and to live 
in a world above sordid and material wealth, we must fill 
the child's soul with the beauty of earth and sky and 
teach him to find the peace and rest of heaven in his 
home. 



CONTEXT METHOD 



239 



But the best text-books in the world will accomplish 
little unless the teacher breathes into them a soul. Her 
method must be in harmony with the method embodied in 
the text-book which she places in the child's hands. No 
matter what care may have been expended in choosing 
the right germinal thoughts for the child-mind and in de- 
veloping them progressively, no matter how rigorously 
the requirements of the context method may be kept in 
view by the writer of the book, but little may be hoped for 
without the sympathetic co-operation of the teacher. She 
must realize that the fruit is not to be gathered on the 
day of the planting and that she must look to the future 
man and woman for the best reward of her efforts for 
the child. She must learn to value other things more than 
the glib enunciation of words and rest content only when 
the hearts and souls of the children committed to her 
care are growing towards righteousness and giving prom- 
ise of good and abundant fruit in due season. 

The teacher's questions from the beginning should be 
so framed as not to permit of memorized answers, but 
should cause the children to look beneath the surface 
of the lesson which they have learned to read and to find 
there the hidden treasure. Step by step the text should 
give the children opportunity to compare thoughts that 
are closely related and to find similar thoughts in diverse 
settings. When the children are drilled in this way in 
the primary grades, their hunger and thirst for truth will 
grow with their years and their delight in the best that 
literature affords will be with them a permanent posses- 
sion. 

Aim in Primary Beading 

It has been cleverly said that all we have done in the 
art of writing and printing is no more than the continu- 



240 TEACHERS MANUAL, OF PRIMARY METHODS 

ance of a gradual process of substituting a suggestion for 
a complete picture on the actual writing tablet. Where 
the hand of the writer formerly made the picture the 
hand now simply, as it were, gives the number of the 
picture in the catalogue. The brain does the rest. The 
printed word brings the idea into the focus of conscious- 
ness by directing the mind to supply the ideograph — a 
signalling process apparently, and one the mind is slow 
to learn. Once acquired, however, and by systematic 
training become a habit, it is swifter in operation than 
the muscular movement of the eye. 

Training the youthful mind in this habit — the art of 
reading — is fraught with many difficulties. So it was in 
the days of Quintilian and Plutarch, and the multitude of 
theories and methods since ingeniously devised has not 
banished the problems. The past few decades have been 
most fruitful in studies and investigations bearing di- 
rectly on the subject, yet educators admit that they are 
confronted to-day with a generation of pupils who as 
readers do not justify the great efforts expended on their 
training. They cannot read well. They have failed to 
acquire that habit of mind essential to good reading, of 
producing the picture called for by the number, of sup- 
plying the idea suggested by its symbol, the word. 

A certain degree of proficiency in reading has been 
very generally obtained, but as a writer of wide expe- 
rience in our public schools has recently said: "The as- 
sumption is so general that if children call the words 
glibly, they of course grasp the thought that efficient in- 
vestigation is too seldom made as to the reality and vigor 
of the grip. They are drilled in reading from six to four- 
teen, yet it is safe to say that a majority, if not a large 



CONTEXT METHOD 241 

majority, will pass alike over that which is intelligible to 
them, and that which is not, unconscious of any differ- 
ence." He quotes a superintendent of schools as say- 
ing: "The defect results from an insane dependence for 
both the development of thought, and the communication 
of intelligence directly upon words as though when we 
give a child new words we furnish him with ideas. There 
lies the great mistake that pervades American public- 
school work — and a greater is not possible in educational 
affairs, nor one more pregnant with injury and loss. The 
teaching in a majority of our schools is the teaching of 
words alone, irrespective of ideas. ' ' 

Were the methods employed in our parish schools for 
the teaching of reading and similar subjects distinctly un- 
like those in vogue in the public schools we might look 
there for different results. Can the same indictment be 
preferred against them? 

Protest From Secondary Schools 

The higher institutions which receive pupils from pub- 
lic and private schools are leading voices in the general 
protest. In high school, academy, and college, the teach- 
ers claim that the children sent to them cannot properly 
read the texts placed in their hands. "Not only do they 
not comprehend the language of their books, but they do 
not know that they do not comprehend it. ' ' Although they 
are in many instances calling words unhesitatingly and 
pronouncing them correctly, when tested on the final issue 
of grasping the sense they are found wanting. They ex- 
hibit their talents very much like the so-called "best 
spellers, ' ' who knew words only to spell them, who, never 



242 TEACHERS MANUAL. OF PRIMARY METHODS 

understanding the meaning of many words they so fault- 
lessly built up and tore down, could not afterward intel- 
ligently use them. Both the reader and the speller have, 
in short, attained proficiency in that which is at best only 
a means to an end. 

Of the essential elements in oral reading such as call- 
ing the words, grasping the thought, and expressing it, it 
is safe to say that the more important have been greatly 
undervalued. Indeed they have often been entirely 
neglected, but of such distorted reading one should 
scarcely speak. The initial exercise of telling the words, 
even with those scientifically guided, has been esteemed 
of paramount importance. Through the general prac- 
tice of oral reading and neglect of any other, through the 
methods most widely adopted in recent years, both an- 
alytical and synthetical, the teacher's attention has been 
centered on the word, and her main effort has been pre- 
cisely to give the child power in discerning and telling 
words. The tests of her work required no higher stand- 
ard of excellence than that furnished by oral reading, 
save where, happily, reproduction was introduced to 
search beneath the fluent rendition of a lesson for some 
evidence of grasping thought. 

Silent Eeading 

The teacher was consequently urged to get results in 
word knowledge as soon as possible without being as- 
sured of a corresponding progress in thought develop- 
ment. With oral reading in the place of honor, silent 
reading, a salutary practice for getting thought, became 
a lost art ; and the other safeguarding elements demanded 



CONTEXT METHOD 243 

by the very nature of reading itself, perceiving the sense 
and expressing it, were lost to view. The text-books, 
furthermore, were not so constructed as to counteract the 
effects of this procedure. They rather encouraged it, the 
primers and first books particularly. With few creditable 
exceptions they were lessons in words ; they did not aim 
to express thought even when the words were known by 
the child ; they sought chiefly as the end of drill and exer- 
cise the quick and sure recognition of words. 

Pkepabing Text-Books 

It is curious to note how some of the books used in our 
schools were prepared, and particularly, in regard to the 
introduction of new words. Size, sound, appearance and 
arbitrary standards seem to have dictated the choice 
rather than consideration of the usefulness or meaning 
of words to the child. Were these books the real embodi- 
ment of any one reliable method, or the combination of 
some devices notable for their services in the past, one 
would be milder in criticism, but they lack method, and 
some openly disavow it. Others claim to be eclectic — 
taking advantage of all that has gone before, and leaving 
the teacher very much liberty to choose and to eliminate 
so as to meet the requirements of her peculiar circum- 
stances. Very few, one regrets to say, are models of 
method. 

It is only natural in the face of these unsatisfactory 
conditions to fall back on the fundamental principles of 
reading in order to learn what is to be done for the future 
efficiency of its teaching. Methods are of value only in 
the light of these principles, and however good they may 
be as aids, once their shortcomings are realized, some- 



244 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

thing more must be discovered to arrive at the end in 
view. 

Colonel Parker, who delighted to tell that the phonic 
method originated before the Eef ormation because it was 
described by Valentine Ikelsamer, a contemporary of 
Lnther, denned reading as getting thought by means of 
written or printed words; and to embrace oral reading, 
he added that it was the getting and giving of thought by 
means of words so arranged. Whether the word, the sen- 
tence, the script, the phonic, the look and say method, or 
any other were adopted, he maintained that the child 
should first get the thought, the idea or the sense of what 
he read before being allowed to speak. The idea must 
always be acquired before the word can be. * * * The 
word itself should be subordinate and secondary in in- 
terest to the child, to the idea that excites the mind. * * * 
The word is to be learned consciously as a whole, and any 
attempt to analyze or synthesize it hinders the act of as- 
sociation by absorbing the attention. * * * All through 
the education of the child this rule should be carefully 
followed, viz. : Never allow a child to give a thought until 
he gets it. * * * So he offered his well-known sugges- 
tions for the learning of words by association with ob- 
jects, blackboard drawings, pictures, conversations and 
stories. 

If the product of the methods in use to-day is the super- 
ficial and thoughtless reader, then another attempt at 
solving the problem which aims chiefly at getting thought, 
and teaching words by means of context, is most needed. 
The Catholic Education Series of primary text-books 
was prepared especially to meet the requirements of the 
context method. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
TEACHING THE CHILD TO SPELL 

We teach children to spell in order that they may be 
able to write correctly. Oral spelling has no real value 
apart from the aid which it may lend to correct writing, 
and hence at first sight it would seem to be difficult to 
justify it, since it is a roundabout way of accomplishing 
the end which we have in view. However, the process of 
learning to spell is not so simple as this might seem to 
indicate. 

When the child of six enters school he usually possesses 
a large spoken vocabulary which is more or less accu- 
rately developed in accordance with the language spoken 
in his home environment, whereas he seldom possesses 
any written language. In other words, his center of hear- 
ing in the temporal lobe of the brain has been enriched by 
a large number of well-developed word memories which 
function in controlling his organs of speech and in lead- 
ing him into an understanding of what the people around 
him are thinking and saying. 

The school undertakes to develop similar word mem- 
ories in the visual area of the occipital lobe and the prac- 
tical question which confronts the teacher in the primary 
grades is, how to proceed in this new line of brain de- 
velopment. Shall she follow the lines in the development 
of the visual area which have been followed with such 
success in the development of the auditory area? That 
is, shall the child be taught the meaning of the written 
word from its relationship to the thing signified and 



246 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMABY METHODS 

ignore for the time being the existence of the auditory 
word memories which he already possesses? Or shall 
she proceed from the oral vocabulary to build up 
the relationships between the oral and the visual words, 
translating the one into the other, and resting content 
with this indirect connection between the written word 
and the concept for which it stands? Or shall both 
methods be employed simultaneously? 

This is merely stating our questions in psychological 
terminology ; but this statement is valuable to the teacher 
because it reveals to some extent the physiological basis 
of the process involved in learning to spell, and at the 
same time it seems to point the way to a satisfactory 
answer to many questions which are continually arising 
concerning the work of teaching spelling. 

The Oeal Method 

One would expect that better immediate results might 
be looked for from the oral method, in so far as it borrows 
the large oral vocabulary which the child possesses for 
the foundation of written language; but, on the other 
hand, such a procedure might be expected to yield very 
poor final results since the foundation laid is not strong 
or abiding and, above all, since it is not direct. If the 
teacher has no other interest in the matter than to exhibit 
at the end of the year the number of words which the chil- 
dren are able to spell correctly, she will naturally turn to 
the oral method as the sole one to be employed or at least 
as a valuable auxiliary. Whether or not such a procedure 
would result in a permanent impairment of the future 
man's power clearly and easily to grasp the thoughts 



SPELLING 



247 



lying back of the printed page, does not concern such a 
teacher. 

On the other hand, where the real interests of the child 
control the work of education, the axiom is likely to be 
festina lente. Put in secure foundations; use only such 
methods as will tend to secure the best final results. The 
teacher who takes this view of the matter will be likely 
to lay chief emphasis on the visual method of teaching 
spelling and to use the oral method, if at all, in a second- ' 
ary capacity. She will find many reasons for pursuing 
this course among the considerations which make for the 
context method of reading. 

Our aim in teaching the child to read should be to en- 
able the man to think clearly and connectedly the thoughts 
presented by the written page. The written words serve 
their real function when they call up into the focus of 
consciousness the chain of thought while they themselves 
remain in the indirect field of vision. The less conscious 
we are of the word and the more vividly conscious of the 
thing the better. Above all, the relationship of thought 
to thought, in which the processes of judgment and rea- 
son consist, must not be enfeebled or obscured by the in- 
trusion upon the field of mental vision of resemblances 
and relationships between the groups of words used as a 
means for bringing the thought complexes into conscious- 
ness. 

It is considerations such as these which lead to a reali- 
zation of the incalculable injury which is being done to 
the minds of our children by the abuse of phonic methods ; 
and whenever the phonic method is used to facilitate the 
child 's finding or calling new words it is an abuse. The 
phonic method has its real value in connection with the 



248 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

speech center; its function is to perfect pronunciation 
and it should not be allowed to intrude itself into the 
process of developing in the brain of the child visual im- 
ages of words. 

It will readily be understood that a similar objection 
may be urged against the oral method of teaching spell- 
ing. In so far as the oral method may aid in pronunci- 
ation and syllabication it is valuable; but these are sec- 
ondary considerations in view of the main end to be 
attained in teaching spelling, which is correct writing, a 
process that depends mainly upon the clearness of the 
visual word image and associated muscle memories. 

Function of the Written Word 

The processes involved in reading, writing and spell- 
ing are most intimately related, and our methods of de- 
veloping and perfecting them should also be closely re- 
lated. The most important part of the work consists in 
developing in the child's mind a clear, strong image of 
the thing signified and an adequate word image which, 
in all the subsequent work of the mind, may serve as a 
means of calling up the image of the thing, while the word 
image itself remains subconscious. 

Four distinct elements are involved in this process: 
1. The development of a thought or of a mental image of 
some objective reality. 2. The development in the visual 
area of a written word which has been adopted as a sym- 
bol of the thought in question. 3. The linking together 
of these two images. 4. The relative strength of the two 
images so as to secure the easy possession of the focus of 
consciousness by the thought and the automatic and sub- 
conscious functioning of the word-picture. 



SPELLING 



249 



If we are to succeed in the work here outlined, we must 
begin with the development of the thought and when this 
is strong and clear in the mind of the child, we should 
develop the word and link it to the thought. In each sub- 
sequent recurrence of this dual image the one first de- 
veloped will tend to be the stronger and accordingly will 
maintain its place at the center of the field of vision. This 
tendency will be further strengthened by the development 
of the relationships in the thought system. 

If, however, this process be reversed and the words be 
developed before the concepts for which they stand, the 
words will tend to maintain their place at the center of 
consciousness and to banish into obscurity the thought 
signified ; and this tendency will be further strengthened 
by the development of the system of word relationships, 
such as that involved in current phonic methods. The net 
result will be a mind dominated by words and word rela- 
tionships and yet starved in the matter of real mental 
food. From this it may also be inferred that the practice 
of teaching children to spell words the meanings, of which 
are unknown to them, must lead to pernicious results ; and 
this inference is abundantly justified by experience. 

The Spelling Book 

It is considerations such as these which have led to the 
abandonment of the formal spelling-book, at least in the 
elementary grades. It may be laid down as a safe rule 
that the child should never be called upon to spell a word 
until its meaning is vividly present to him. In the early 
part of the process the thought should be emphasized and 
the word must not be adverted to unnecessarily until such 



250 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 

time as the thought image is secure in its possession of 
the focus of consciousness. Then, and not until then, 
should the child 's attention be directed to the form of the 
word, to its correct pronunciation and to its accurate 
spelling. 

The spelling drill should follow the reading lesson; it 
must not be allowed to precede it. And when I say it 
must follow the reading lesson, I mean that the word 
must have occurred with sufficient frequency in the read- 
ing lesson in different contexts to develop and perfect 
the meaning of the word in the child's consciousness. 
After this we may safely proceed with the work of de- 
veloping the word image, and in this we need spelling and 
phonetic drills ; but even then spelling drills may be 
given with the greatest profit when the words are used 
in appropriate sentences which should be dictated by the 
teacher. 

The Blackboaed 

The first lessons in spelling, like the first lessons in 
reading, should be given on the blackboard. The teacher 
should write the utterance on the board and demonstrate 
its meaning and then the children in turn should be al- 
lowed to do the thing signified. When a reasonable num- 
ber of such utterances have been developed in this way, 
the child, after doing the thing signified, should turn 
his back to the blackboard and tell the class what is 
written upon it. Finally, he should be led to reproduce 
the utterance in writing. In this way the right sequence 
is developed between the thought and the mental image 
of its written form. Little by little, words which appear 
in various utterances tend to isolate themselves from the 
rest of the utterances in the child's mind and thus he 



SPELLING 251 

gradually gains a consciousness of words as separate en- 
tities, and it is not until then that the drill in spelling 
should begin. Similarly, the written characters from ap- 
pearing in various complexes tend to isolate themselves 
and then the child should be taught to name them and to 
learn his alphabet in its proper sequence. 

During the first phase of the child 's work in school no 
book should be placed in his hands. The blackboard and 
the chart are the proper media for instruction in reading, 
writing, spelling, drawing, etc. There can be no question 
as to the use of a spelling-book at this stage of the work. 
The attention of the children and all the available energy 
of the teacher will be required at this time for the devel- 
opment of a limited written vocabulary and of a few pri- 
mary apperception masses. The words and phrases used 
in these elementary reading lessons are the only ones 
which any practical teacher will attempt to use in the ac- 
companying drills in writing and spelling. When ques- 
tions concerning the use of a spelling-book or the oral and 
written methods of teaching spelling are raised, reference 
is usually had to the later phases of the work, that is, 
from the second grade onward. 

We shall take the work of the second grade as typical 
of a method of teaching spelling which should be em- 
ployed in connection with the context method of reading, 
The latter half of the first year 's work represents a tran- 
sition phase from the blackboard and chart work as out- 
lined above to the method which we are here discussing. 

Visualizing 

Before taking up the details of this method, however, 
we must invite the attention of the reader to the well- 



252 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 

known fact that children differ widely in their power of 
visualizing. This difference is due in part to physiolog- 
ical conditions which result in varying rates of develop- 
ment in the cortical areas, particularly in the newest por- 
tions of the brain, the temporal and the occipital lobes, 
which are the centers of hearing and seeing respectively. 
This difference may be traced to a variety of causes, such 
as heredity, the nutritive and hygienic conditions which 
prevailed during infancy, the stimulation of the environ- 
ment, previous training, etc. Elsewhere we shall discuss 
the causes and remedies for these conditions. All that it 
is necessary to bear in mind for our present purpose is 
the fact that whatever be the cause, the children in the 
second grade differ widely in their power of visualizing 
the words which we wish to teach them to read and to 
spell correctly. 

It might also be well to warn the teacher of the danger 
and injustice which lie in the habit of classifying poor 
visualizers with dull and backward children and of re- 
garding good visualizers as bright children. Abundant 
evidence is at hand to show that children with limited 
power of visualization may have splendid powers in other 
directions. When such children are properly handled, 
they frequently attain a very high development not only 
in these other directions but even in visualizing power. 
Many a promising child has been thoroughly discouraged 
through the teacher's misunderstanding of this subject. 
It would, indeed, be interesting to know what proportion 
of our laggards owe their unhappy condition to the un- 
pardonable blundering of teachers in the primary grades 
with reference to this very matter. 



SPELLING 253 

Nowhere else does the prevalent procrustean method 
of a rigid system of grading show to poorer advantage 
than in the primary grades. The children differ widely 
from each other on entering school. They differ in age, 
in heredity, in nationality ; they differ because of the di- 
verse family customs and the physical environment to 
which they were subjected. To put fifty of these children 
into a room and treat them in the selfsame manner, in 
the hope of developing them normally along mental lines, 
comes pretty near reaching the climax of absurdity. 

Each child should be treated according to his needs. 
But we are told that no teacher can spare the time to deal 
with each child individually and hence that she is com- 
pelled to assume in her work what she knows to be untrue ; 
namely, that the children are alike and all need the same 
treatment. Until this state of affairs can be remedied, 
all talk of scientific methods in* the primary grades is illu- 
sory. There is a growing consciousness of the incongru- 
ity of the situation, which has led to various attempts at 
developing individual methods. 

If time cannot be spared by the teacher to deal with 
each child according to his individual needs, may it not 
be possible for her to divide the class of fifty children into 
several groups on the basis of their aptitude for the 
work at hand 1 If this does not go the whole length of the 
individual method, it escapes the excesses of the simul- 
taneous method, of which complaint is made. The 
methods of teaching reading and spelling which we 
are here advocating aim at a nearer approach to the 
child's capacity than is possible in the methods in current 
use. They also aim at utilizing, as far as possible, the 
imitative tendency and the mutual helpfulness of the chil- 



254 TEACHBES MANUAL OF PKIMAEY METHODS 

dren. The method of teaching reading was dealt with 
elsewhere. A brief outline of the method of teaching 
spelling follows : 

The Text-Book 

The text-book should be constructed along the lines of 
the method to be employed by the teacher. Where the 
context method is to be employed in teaching the child to 
read, continuity of thought should characterize the read- 
ers in the elementary grades. This is necessary if the 
thought development is to dominate the accompanying 
word development. Moreover, since the thought more or 
less determines the language, it is necessary to preserve 
continuity so that we may constantly re-employ the words 
previously learned, with a small percentage of new words, 
which the child will readily get from the context. Where 
the first and second books are made up of selections deal- 
ing with isolated themes, there is sudden transition to new 
vocabularies, and lack of interest, both of which impede 
the child 's progress The continuous story enables 
the child to anticipate what is coming and thus min- 
isters to his growing self-reliance, while his thought and 
his vocabulary unfold naturally in accordance with the 
laws of organic development. 

The primary books of the Catholic Education Series 
have been written to meet the demands of the context 
method of reading and of the present method of spelling. 
At the end of this volume will be found the word lists 
for each story in Religion, First and Second Books, under 
numbers which indicate whether the words in question 
are used in the corresponding story for the first, second, 



SPELLING 255 

third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, or tenth 
time. After the word has been used for the tenth time 
it ceases to be listed, as the children are all supposed to 
be able to spell it and pronounce it correctly. 

The teacher should write the appropriate numbers 
under the corresponding words in her copy of the reader. 
The words which remain without numbers under them are 
such as have been used more than ten times : these words 
should be known by all the children.* The words with 
' ' 10 ' ' under them will form suitable drills for the poorest 
visualizers, whereas words with 5 or 6 under them may 
be found suitable for the best visualizers in the room. 
But before the teacher can proceed intelligently with her 
drills, she must classify her children according to their 
various visualizing powers. 

Classifying the Childeen 

For the purpose of illustration we shall suppose that 
the teacher is about to take over a class towards the end 
of the first year or the beginning of the second. If the 
previous work has been well done, she will find that all 
the children, with the possible exception of those that are 
abnormal or atypical, are able to write and read cor- 
rectly sentences composed of words which have no num- 
bers under them ; that is, of words that have been used 
more than ten times in the preceding stories. 

The teacher should then dictate a number of sentences 
employing all the "10" words in the reading lesson, to- 
gether with words used more than ten times, and she 



*The number ten is chosen empirically and may be varied to suit the 
class. 



256 TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PKIMAEY METHODS 

should write "10" opposite the names of the children who 
evince a difficulty in spelling or pronouncing correctly any 
of the "10" words. These children are the poorest 
visualizers in the room. The remainder of the children 
should then be required to write sentences in which all the 
"9" words are used together with words used more than 
nine times. And children manifesting difficulty in writing 
and reading these sentences will be indicated in the 
register by the "9." This process should be repeated 
with the " 8 " words, with the " 7 " words, and so on, until 
even the best visualizers in the school begin to show dif- 
ficulty in writing or pronouncing the words. 

Let us suppose that this limit is reached in dealing 
with the "5" words. This would give us six groups 
classified according to the children's power of spelling 
and pronouncing words. Each of these groups will read- 
ily fall into two, depending upon whether the difficulty 
appears in visualizing or in vocalizing. For the sake of 
simplicity, we shall at present ignore this difference and 
consider only the six groups indicated. 

Spelling Drills 

The teacher is now in possession of an item of knowl- 
edge concerning her children which will enable her to 
proceed with some regard to their varied capacities. 
After the reading lesson, the "5" children will be drilled 
on "5" words, both as to pronunciation and as to spell- 
ing. The words, of course, must always be given in sen- 
tences composed of words none of which has been used 
less than five times. The teacher will next turn to the 
"6" children and drill them on the "6" words, that is, 



SPELLING 



257 



on words which have appeared for the sixth time in the 
context and which have been nsed for one drill with the 
number five children. Similarly, the number seven chil- 
dren will be called upon to reproduce words which have 
appeared for the seventh time in the context of the lesson 
and which they have witnessed in two word drills. And 
so on down through the class. 

All the children learn the same words; they all make 
an approximately equal effort in the learning, but those 
who need least help get least help and those who need 
most help get most help. Each group receives accord- 
ing to the measure of its need. And since the principle 
underlying the classification of the children is known 
only to the teacher, the children are unaware of the pres- 
ence in the room of any " bright children' ' or of any "dull 
children. ' ' If the teacher finds from day to day that the 
work is too easy for a given child, she moves him up a num- 
ber ; if she finds the work too difficult for any child, she 
moves him down a number. In fact, the teacher keeps her 
class in tune, as a musician would his instrument, and at 
the end of the year none but really defective children will 
have failed to make their grade. Retardation and elimi- 
nation, the two-fold curse of the public school system of 
this country, will be practically unknown where the scien- 
tific methods here outlined are employed. The method 
of teaching spelling which we are here advocating must 
not be confounded with that which a recent writer on the 
subject designates as the "incidental" method. 

When the child first meets a word, high cortical tension 
in the visual area is called into play to fix the word in the 
visual memory. At each subsequent recurrence of the 
word a lessened attention and a lessened energy are re- 



258 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMABY METHODS 

quired. Finally, the process becomes automatic and the 
nerve tension required may fall below the threshold of 
consciousness. After this it becomes increasingly diffi- 
cult to correct the memory-pictures which govern the pro- 
nunciation and the spelling of the word. It is highly im- 
portant, therefore, to perfect the memory-images before 
the process becomes automatic, If the attention of the 
child is called to the spelling and the pronunciation of a 
word the first time it occurs, the result is bad, because 
the attention is called to the detail before the substance 
of the word has taken form in the brain ; it would be like 
endeavoring to paint a house before the house was built. 
On the other hand, to defer perfecting the spelling and 
pronunciation of a word until such time as they have be- 
come automatic, is to render the task needlessly difficult. 
If a "10" child be exercised on a "5" word, we sin in 
the former way ; whereas, if a " 5 " child be exercised on 
a "10" word, we sin in the latter way. The teacher 
must determine empirically the period at which it is 
advisable to drill each child in the spelling and pronuncia- 
tion of the words which he is in the process of mastering. 
If one should desire to ascertain how unscientific are 
the prevalent methods employed in the primary class- 
room, nothing further would be necessary than to ask a 
teacher to classify the children in her room according to 
their visualizing power, or to point out in the text which 
the children were required to read, the words which occur 
for the first, second, third, or tenth time, or ask her to 
state how many drills were had in the class on any of 
these words. The teacher usually proceeds blindly and 
by a hit or miss method she calls upon a child to pro- 
nounce or spell a given word without knowing his visual- 



SPELLING 259 

izing power or the stage of development which he has 
reached in regard to the word in question. What wonder 
that the results are disappointing ! She calls upon a child 
without knowing whether his visualizing index is five or 
ten and requires him to spell a word without knowing in 
the least whether it is the fifth or the twentieth time that 
the word has occurred in his work. 

The new words are sometimes set forth at the begin- 
ning of the lesson and the teacher endeavors to have the 
children master their spelling and pronunciation before 
they have learned the meaning, thus reversing the natural 
order ; and yet we complain that our children in the eighth 
grade are unable to think, that they are unable to para- 
phrase a paragraph, that they are unable to spell accu- 
rately or to read fluently. 

If a spelling book be used, it must be one constructed 
out of the words employed in the child's reader and these 
words must be so arranged as to permit the teacher to 
give to her children each day the drills which they require 
in accordance with their varied powers of visualization. 
Moreover, as the words should not be given alone but in 
sentences, it would appear that the reader is the proper 
medium for the teaching of spelling in the first and sec- 
ond grades. When we cease endeavoring to make the 
children learn to spell a great many words which they 
will probably never use and the meaning of which they 
do not know, we shall find the requisite time in which to 
teach them to spell correctly the words which they will 
use in expressing their thoughts in writing. 



CHAPTER XIX 

PEEPAEATION FOE THE CHILD'S FIEST 

EEADEE 

Eeligion, First Book, is intended to present in the 
proper sequence the thought material for the work of the 
first grade. It contains the beginnings of science and of 
aesthetics, the fundamental concepts of religion and of 
the child's social relationships, and it is at the same time 
written so as to serve as the child 's first reader in accord- 
ance with the principles of the context method of reading 
and spelling. The first four functions of this book have 
been dealt with elsewhere. We are here concerned with it 
solely in its capacity as a first reader, and as such it pre- 
supposes a certain development of written language. 

The aim of the context method is to lead the child 
through a context of known words to a percentage of un- 
known words. The unknown words should be so used 
that were they removed the children would be able to fill 
in the blanks with the correct words or with synonyms. 
It is accordingly evident that the context method is not 
available for the first steps in written language. It can- 
not be employed with success until a small vocabulary of 
properly chosen words is thoroughly mastered by the 
children. Moreover, the context method implies that the 
children have a strong grasp of the thought expressed 
and a familiarity with its oral expression. 

A period of from six weeks to five months should be 
devoted to work with the blackboard and chart before the 
children are allowed to use the first book, and even after 



PBEPAEATION FOB THE CHILD 's FIRST READER 261 

the first book is taken up by the children, the blackboard 
and chart work should continue to be used in a diminish- 
ing degree throughout the remainder of the first year. 
Similarly, while the work of the preliminary period must 
be conducted through the help of the sensory motor re- 
action and the direct sensory expression, the principle of 
the context method should gradually be brought into play. 
This method will occupy a subordinate place at first, and 
should gradually grow in importance until, when the first 
book is reached, it should dominate the work of teaching 
reading and spelling. 

Action words should constitute the first exercises in 
written language. Eun, hop, skip, jump, dance, fly, etc., 
written on the board by the teacher, should act as the sig- 
nals to release the children's activities. 

Genetic psychology furnishes the reasons for this choice 
of the words which are to be first engraven upon the 
visual areas of the child 's brain. It is as true to-day as it 
was in the days of Aristotle or of St. Thomas that there 
is nothing in the intellect but what was previously in the 
senses. We must not make the mistake, however, of sup- 
posing that the sensory element is the primary unit of 
mental life. A nerve current flowing in to the brain over 
sensory tracts tends to flow out into action over appro- 
priate motor pathways, and it is to this motor element 
that we are chiefly indebted for the permanency of the 
first sensory elements developed in any corticle area. 

After the sensory motor association has been thor- 
oughly built up, other elements may be established 
through association with these primary images. Thus, 
after the child has thoroughly mastered the written word 
run through repeated recognition and performance of the 



262 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PKIMAKY METHODS 

action, he may be taught the nouns door, windoiv, etc., 
through such sentences as Run to the door, Run to the 
window, etc. Later on, modifying words may be acquired 
through association with words which are thoroughly es- 
tablished. 

At a very early date other associations begin to assert 
themselves. The thought expressed in known words calls 
for a completion in the unknown word and the child thus 
passes from the thought to the appropriate written word 
on the principle of the context method. Again, the sim- 
ilarity in form of the new word to words already known 
will aid the child in finding the correct synonym among 
the group of words that may be suggested by the context. 
Lifting this latter principle into the central place is the 
mistake made in the prevalent phonic methods. 

The method here outlined begins with the utterance, 
which may consist of a single word, such as run, or of 
many words expressing a simple thought or action. Its 
aim is not the development primarily of a single word as 
such but of a symbol for a complete thought or action. 
From their appearance in various connections in the ut- 
terances which the children are learning, words gradually 
isolate themselves as separate entities and are recognized 
by the child as such. This stage should be reached be- 
fore the leading role is assigned to the context method. 

A book such as Eeligion, First Book, constructed on the 
principles of the context method, presupposes a definite 
vocabulary which must be developed on blackboard and 
chart before it can be successfully used. A competent 
teacher who is versed in the principles of psychology in- 
volved and who has thoroughly mastered the thought and 



PREPARATION FOR THE CHILD 's FIRST READER 263 

the vocabulary of the first book, should be able without 
undue difficulty to make the proper selections of words 
and thought material for the preliminary work of the first 
grade. But other teachers who are not thus equipped, 
will need some guidance to avoid needless waste of time 
and energy, and every teacher will probably benefit by 
some suggestions in the matter. Care must be taken, 
however, to avoid rigidity. The circumstances of the 
children are never alike in two primary rooms and the 
teacher who would succeed must draw the thought ma- 
terial from that which is most thoroughly organized in the 
minds of the children whom she would instruct. And in 
like manner, while the presuppositions of the first book in 
the matter of vocabulary must be reckoned with, the vo- 
cabulary of the children must also be taken into account 
and must be taken into account in the first place, for here 
as elsewhere the process of education must be from the 
known to the unknown. 

The first story in Religion, First Book, "Looking for 
Breakfast,' ' contains a total of 42 words. Curve No. 1, 
page 291, exhibits in terms of percentage the repe- 
tition of the words used in the story. Thus it will be seen 
that 59% of the words are used only once, 31% are used 
twice, 7% are used three times, and 2y 2 % are used for 
the fourth time. To render this story available for a 
drill in the context method, not more than 5% to 10% of 
the new words should be used for the first time. More 
than half the words should be thoroughly known, and the 
words from five to fifty per cent should be in various 
stages of development in the minds of the children. More- 
over, the new physical adjustments required for holding 
the book and the disturbing elements of beginning a new 



264 TEACHERS MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 

form of exercise tend to prevent the child's mind from 
working normally, hence it is better that all the words of 
this story should be thoroughly mastered before the book 
is put into the children's hands. The first exercise with 
the book will then be so delightful to the children that 
their faith in themselves and in the book will grow rap- 
idly. 

The second story, "Building a Nest," contains eighty 
words and were there no other drills than those implied in 
reading the first story, the percentage curve No. 2 would 
exhibit the relationship of known to unknown elements in 
the words. 42% of the words appear in this lesson for 
the first time, 321/2 % of words used for the second time, 
12%% for the third time, 7%% for the fourth time, 
5% for the fifth time, 3%% for the sixth time, 2y 2 % 
for the seventh time, 1%% for the eighth time, 1% for 
the ninth time and 1%% f° r the tenth time. To render 
this lesson suitable for the children, blackboard and chart 
exercises should have changed the form of this curve into 
that represented in curve No. 2 R, page 270, where it will 
be seen that 50% of the words have been used more than 
ten times and are supposed to be thoroughly known to 
the children. 5% appear for the first time, 5% for the 
second time, etc., up to the tenth time. The words 
selected for complete development are: the, grass, Mr. 
and, Mrs., Robin, are, here, they, looking, for, to, is, come, 
nest, tree. The words, apple, robins, home, and had, ap- 
pear in this lesson for the first time and the child should 
be taught to get them through the principles of the con- 
text method. Of these four words, two appear again and 
for the second time in this lesson, viz., home, and robin, 
whereas, the words away, and spring, are to be used once 



PKEPAEATION FOB THE CHILD 's FIKST KEADEK 265 

in chart sentences in the work of preparation for this les- 
son. Spring appears again in this story as a number 
three word. The other three words, flowers, of, and their, 
have been previously used twice in chart sentences. 
Spring and flowers reappear as four words in this story. 
The other two four words, this and came, have been used 
three times in the charts. Came is used again as a five 
word while made, with and see, have appeared four times 
in the charts. With and see are repeated as six words, 
while last and up are introduced here after having ap- 
peared five times in the charts. By a similar procedure, 
5% each of seven, eight, nine, and ten words is obtained. 

Curve No. 19, page 292, shows the percentage of words 
in the story "Breakfast on the Gr as s" without any altera- 
tions having been made through blackboard and chart ex- 
ercises. This lesson as it stands might be employed as 
suitable reading matter on the context principle. The 
same might be said of lessons represented by curves 23 
to 29 of this book. However, some preparation will facili- 
tate matters, and such preparation will almost inevitably 
be made through the blackboard and chart exercises that 
have been performed before the children reach the latter 
part of the First Book. 

The effect of the work with blackboard and chart which 
should precede and accompany Eeligion, First Book, will 
transform the curves and vocabularies throughout First 
and Second Books. 

In the preparation, through the use of blackboard and 
chart, for the child's first book a certain number of words 
should be made perfectly clear to the children; others 
should be partly developed, through blackboard and 
chart, allowing the remaining development to take place 



266 



TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 



through the use of the book itself. During the prelim- 
inary period, adequate preparation should be made for 
the first eleven stories, which complete the first part of 
Eeligion, First Book. For this, the following words 
should be completely developed on blackboard and chart. 
The letters at the head of each column stand for the story 
where the words appear for the first time. Thus (a) 
stands for Looking for Breakfast; (b) Building a Nest, 
etc. 



(a) 

here 

are 

Mr. 

and 

Mrs. 

Robin 

looking 

for 

breakfast 

thing 

on 

the 

grass . 

give 

three 

hops 

chirps 

look 

around 



begin 

again 

good 

morning 

you 

your 

(b) 

to 

is 

a 

came 

nest 

tree 

(c) 

branch 
mother 
sang 
wings 



(d) 
bird 
birds 
little 
her 
songs 
sleep 
loves 
them 
breezes 

(e) 
gather 
welcome 
climb 
him 

(f) 
sing 
show 
Jesus 



Heaven 
where 

(g) 

fly 

build 

nests 

wave 

roses 

lilies 

open 

trees 

fills 

stars 

sky 

sheep 

(b) 

follow 
flower 
hear 



face 

learn 

glad 

secret 

joy 

grows 

(i) 

play 
pick 
go 

(3) 

clap 

hands 

put 

(k) 

say 

bread 

wait 



The following words should be partially, but not com- 
pletely, developed through the use of blackboard and 
chart. Number nine will be used as the index of words 
that are almost but not quite fully developed through 
the use of blackboard and chart; number eight will in- 
dicate words still less developed, while number one will 
be used to indicate words that have appeared only once 
in the chart. The letters at the head of the column are 



PREPARATION FOR THE CHILD 's FIRST READER 



267 



used, as above, to indicate the story in which the word 
appears. 



(b) 

building (9) 
March (9) 
snow (9) 
if (8) 

laughed (8) 
went (8) 
sun (7) 
said (7) 
I (7) 

peeped (6) 
then (6) 
were (6) 
last (5) 
up (5) 
made (4) 
with (4) 
see (4) 
came (3) 
this (3) 
flowers (2) 
of (2) 
their (2) 
away (1) 
spring (1) 

(c) 

day's (9) 
lonely (9) 
robin's (9) 
asleep (8) 
cozy (8) 
prayer (8) 
warm (7) 
done (7) 
evening (7) 



sings (6) 
does (7) 
beside (7) 
be (5) 
mother's (5) 
worked (5) 
it (4) 
has (4) 
not (3) 
when (3) 
that (2) 
in (2) 
baby (1) 
at (1) 
he (1) 

(d) 

bird's (9) 
half (9) 
softest (9) 
so (8) 
takes (8) 
rocked (7) 
sweeter (7) 
than (6) 
better (5) 
much (5) 
by (3) 
that (2) 
in (2) 
as (1) 
she (1) 

(e) 

ask (9) 
these (9) 



father's (9) 
just (8) 
stories (8) 
knee (8) 
how (7) 
did (7) 
children (4) 
has (4) 
thing (4) 
from (3) 
tell (2) 
all (2) 
over (2) 

(f) 
way (9) 
lives (9) 
more (9) 
lived (7) 
have (6) 
earth (3) 
there (2) 
us (2) 
Nazareth (1) 

(g) 

others (8) 
gives (7) 
makes (6) 
strong ( 6 ) 
kind (5) 
gentle (5) 
smells (4) 
sends (4) 
teaching (4) 
shepherd (4) 
fills (3) 



sunbeams 
air (1) 

00 



teaches (3) forbid (2) 
sunshine (2) fathers (2) 
no (1) 

(1) U) 

smiles (9) 
crowd (8) 
heart (8) 
sweetness (9) giving (8) 
which (9) blessing (8) 
wherever (8) calls (7) 
voice (8) picked (7) 
or (7) head (6) 

goes (7) stay (6) 

another (7) always (6) 



ever (4) 
brought (3) 

(i) 

teacher (9) 
taught (9) 
shines (9) 
brightly (9) 
sweetly (9) 
after (9) 
rest (8) 
sitting (8) 
trouble (7) 
green (6) 
mothers (6) 
let (5) 
unto (5) 
until (4) 
hears (4) 
resting (4) 
me (3) 
friends (3) 



talks (4) 
blesses (4) 
near (4) 
places (3) 
Jesus' (2) 
curly (1) 

(k) 

lesson (9) 
lead (9) 
forgive (8) 
must (7) 
daily (6) 
art (6) 

trespasses (5) 
hallowed (5) 
temptation (3) 
trespass (3) 
Kingdom (3) 
amen (2) 
evil (2) 
deliver (2) 



With the blackboard and chart preparation, such as 
that outlined above, the children should be ready for the 
first part of Eeligion, First Book; and without any fur- 
ther blackboard and chart drills they should be able to 
read the stories intelligently and get the new words 
through the context method. Preparation along similar 



268 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 

lines, but in a rapidly diminishing extent, should be made 
for the subsequent stories of the book. A detailed out- 
line for this work will be issued in a booklet to accompany 
the charts. 

After the blackboard and chart preparation outlined 
above has been made, the word lists for the first eleven 
stories will be changed from those given on page 275 to 
that given on page 271, and the percentage curves will be 
changed from the form given in the first eleven curves 
to those bearing corresponding numbers with the addi- 
tion of the letter E. Thus curve No. 1 represents the per- 
centage of known and unknown words in Building a Nest. 
Curve No. 1 E. shows that all of the words have been 
thoroughly developed on blackboard and chart. Curve 
No. 2 has been changed by the preliminary blackboard 
work into the form given in the curve No. 2 E., etc. 



CHAPTER XX. 
MODIFIED WORD LIST FOR FIRST BOOK 

In the percentage curves there will be found one hun- 
dred vertical lines, each indicating 1% of the total num- 
ber of words used in the corresponding story. The per- 
centages are read from left to right. The heavy black 
vertical line indicates 50% ; each 10% is marked by a 
line somewhat less heavy, while the lines marking each 
5% are a little more pronounced than those indicating 
the intervening percentages. This arrangement is in- 
tended to help the eye in determining values. 

The horizontal lines in these curves indicate the num- 
ber of times that the words in question have been used. 
These lines are to be counted from the top downward. 
The heavy line running in the horizontal spaces from the 
top lefthand corner downward and to the right, indicates 
the percentage of words used in the corresponding story 
for the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, 
eighth, ninth, and tenth time. Thus in Curve 2 R the 
black line running in the first space crosses five vertical 
spaces, and indicates that 5% of the words used in this 
story are used for the first time. The line continues in 
the second horizontal space from the fifth to the tenth 
line, indicating that 5% of the total words are used for 
the second time. The area shown at the top and to the 
right of this curve shows the facility as compared with 
the difficulty indicated by the area below and to the left of 
this line. An examination of the curve will show that the 
ratio of known to unknown words is approximately 3 
to 1. 



270 



TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMABY METHODS 



The numbers printed in the center of the curves run con- 
secutively from 1 to 79 and indicate the number of the 
story or lesson in the First and Second Books. The num- 
ber followed by "B" indicates the condition of the word 
list of the corresponding story after adequate prepara- 
tion has been made through blackboard and chart. The 
pages noted on the curves refer to the pages of the books 
covered by the matter represented in the curves. 



BUILDING A NEST 







pp. 


10-11. 






Total words, 


80. 


New words, 


4. 


Known words, 40 


1 


3 


5 




7 


9 


apple 
robins 
home 
had 


flowers 
of 

their 
spring 


made 
with 
see 
came 




peeped 
up 
then 
were 


said 
if 

laughed 
went 


2 


4 


6 




8 


10 


away 
robins 
spring 
home 


flowers 
spring 
this 
came 


last 
with 
up 
see 




peeped 
sun 
said 
I 


laughed 
building 
March 
snow 



THE BOBIN'S PBAYEB 



Total words, 


57. 


New words, 


3. 


Known words, 26 


1 


3 


5 


7 


9 


father 
under 
want 


home 

robins 

he 


it 

his 

their 


sings 

does 

beside 


asleep 

cozy 

prayer 


2 


4 


6 


8 


10 


baby 

at 

he 


not 

mother 

when 


he 

mother's 

work 


warm 

done 

evening 


day's 
lonely 
robin's 
prayer 



MODIFIED WOKD LIST FOR FIRST BOOK 



271 



THE NEST OF MOTHER'S ARMS 



Total words, 93. 



arms 

beautiful 

sweet 

ones 

love 



under 
arms 
as 
she 



it 
as 

that 
in 

4 

home 

robins 

by 

5 

home 



New words, 5. 

spring 
flowers 
of 
not 



6 
better 
of 
his 
not 
much 

7 
mother's 



but 
be 

than 
of 

8 



rocked 

but 

sweeter 

mother's 

sings 

does 



Known words, 45. 



rocked 

sings 

but 

so 

takes 

10 

softest 

bird's 

half 

but 

so 



FATHER'S WELCOME HOME 



Total words, 64. 



New words, 3. 
5 7 



happy 


tell 


every 


all 


day 


over 


2 


4 


father 


he 


ones 


tell 


every 


from 


want 


over 


love 





children 
has 
tell 
thing 



home 
their 
thing 



see 
home 
his 
much 

8 

his 

how 

did 



Known words, 29. 

9 

just 

stories 

knee 

10 

ask 

these 

father's 



THE HOME OF JESUS 

Total words, 78. New words, 4. Known words, 36. 



pretty 


happy 


in 


we 


rather 


robins 


was 


there 


it 


our 


us 


from 


2 


4 


he 
when 


happy 


it 


6 


sweet 


love 


beautiful 


father 


with 


Nazareth 


earth 


came 



7 


9 


better 
came 
their 
have 


home 
of 

than 
his 


8 


10 


home 
of 

then 
lived 


home 
way 
lives 
more 



he 
in 



272 



TEACHEES MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 



A WELCOME TO JESUS 



Total words, 


128. 


New words, 


6. 


Known words, 77 


1 


3 


5 


7 


9 


because 


because 


father 


he 


how 


hearts 


sweet 


smells 


father 


their 


big 


sunshine 


sends 


makes 


he 


boat 


rain 


love 


strong 


with 


one 


4 


teaching 


8 


others 


who 


shepherd 


10 


2 


sweet 


6 


their 


all 


with 


his 


because 


fills 


father 


father 


how 


hearts 


teaches 


flowers 


he 


of 


no 


as 


from 


gives 


their 


sunbeams 




kind 


work 


he 


air 




gentle 










A SECRET 




Total words 


, 64. 


New words, 


3. 


Known words, 29 


1 


3 


5 


7 


9 


people 


every 


this 


from 


gives 


into 


we 


fills 


when 


whenever 


like 


one 


ever 


8 
then 


voice 


2 


hearts 
beautiful 


6 


10 


one 


our 


made 


or 


lives 


who 


4 


when 


goes 


sweetness 


our 


it 


another 


which 




we 


love 




with 




brought 


in 







THE TIEED TEACHER 

Total words, 116. New words, 6. Known words, 61. 



1 


tired 


5 


7 


9 


tired 


long 


all 


made 


then 


long 


3 


until 


flowers 


sun 


some 


under 


hears 


children 


work 


while 


away 


resting 


not 


rest 


says 


forbid 


friends 


green 


sitting 


very 


fathers 


6 


mothers 


10 


2 


4 


children 


8 


teacher 


day 


one 


tell 


flowers 


ago 


people 


there 


let 


when 


taught 


was 


every 


unto 


from 


shines 


big 


me 




children 


brightly 


pretty 


friends 




not 
trouble 


sweetly 
after 



MODIFIED WOBD LIST FOB FIBST BOOK 



273 



THE LITTLE CHILDREN 



Total words, 


124. 


New words, 


6. 


Known word 


1 


3 


5 


7 


9 


tells 


Jesus' 


one 


love 


children 


girl 


she 


as 


in 


flowers 


hand 


very 


talks 


head 


father 


can 


arms 


blesses 


stay 


crowd 


about 


want 


near 


always 


heart 


boy 


tells 


6 


8 


giving 


2 


4 


blessing 


resting 


makes 


10 


very 


that 


has 


much 


want 


happy 


this 


he 


children 


tells 


beautiful 


all 


calls 


sitting 


about 


places 


as 


picked 


knee 


curly 






head 


stories 
smiles 



A SWEET LESSON 



Total words, 


136. 


New words, 


7. 


Known words, 


(1) 5% 


(3) 4% 


(5) 7% 


(7) 


5% 


(9) 5% 


will 


who 


sweet 


all 




love 


parents 


day 


earth 


ever 




be 


do 


thy 


tells 


as 




done 


take 


amen 


teaches 


us 




in 


against 


evil 


us 


this 




not 


thy 


deliver 


our 


daily 




from 


name 


(4) 4% 


we 

that 

every 


art 




forgive 


(2) 5% 


tells 


(8) 6% 


(10) 


while 


our 


(6) 5% 


love 




father 


same 


us 


all 




work 


can 


trespass 


ever 


stay 




then 


into 


kingdom 


earth 


in 




be 


will 


temptation 


us 


as 




it 


take 




our 


us 




lesson 


thy 




trespasses 

hallowed 

one 


must 




lead 
forgive 



274 TEACHEES MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 



TEN MODIFIED CURVES REPRESENTING THE FIRST TEN STORIES 
OF RELIGION, FIRST ROOK 



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CHAPTER XXL 
WORD LIST FOR FIRST BOOK 



LOOKING FOR BREAKFAST 

p. 9 



Total words, 


42. 


New words, 


25. 


Known words, 


1 


Robin 


around 


they 


for 


they 


begin 


give 


breakfast 


looking 


on 


again 


three 


3 


for 


the 


good 


and 


breakfast 


grass 


morning 


Mr. 


they 


here 


give 


you 


Robin 


are 


are 


three 


your 


good 


Robin 


Mr. 


hops 


2 


morning 


4 


and 


chirps 


Mrs. 


Mrs. 


look 


are 


looking 


they 




BUILDING A NEST 








pp. 10-11 






Total words, 


80. 


New words, 


34. 


Known words, 0. 


1 


come 


up 


Mrs. 


they 


laughed 


to 


spring 


ft 


building 


said 


see 


looking 


\f 


a 


I 


spring 


for 


the 


nest 


with 


come 


to 


and 


last 


robins 


flowers 


here 


they 


March 


came 


laughed 


nest 


7 


snow 


were 


said 


4 




went 


home 


here 


the 


away 


this 


with 


the 


they 


then 


apple tree 


a 


and 


8 


peeped 


made 


came 


robin 




up 


their 


nest 


Mr. 


the 


to 


is 


home 


Mrs. 


9 


see 


of 


robins 


are 




sun 


2 


3 


5 


the 


flowers 


10 


if 


the 


the 


the 


spring 


grass 


and 


and 


the 


had 


peeped 


Mr. 


robin 





276 



TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMARY METHODS 



THE KOBIN'S PEAYEE 

pp. 12-13 
Total words, 57. New words, 29. Known words, 5. 



6 

robin 
are 

7 

and 
are 

8 



1 


beside 


it 


their 


he 


his 


is 


robin's 


does 


evening 


a 


prayer 


not 


2 


4 


at 


want 


baby- 


mother 


their 


here 


asleep 


be 


is 


nest 


under 


lonely 


on 


to 


mother's 


when 


he 


is 


wings 


day's 


prayer 


5 


cozy 


work 


9 


warm 


done 


•J 


are 


father 


sings 


home 


Mr. 


branch 


song 


robins 


Mrs. 



they 
and 



THE NEST OF MOTHEE'S AEMS 

pp. 14-15. 
Total words, 93. New words, 29. Known words, 11. 



1 


bird 


sings 


but 


6 


loves 


his 


sings 


. 


arms 


her 


not 


mother 


is 

nest 

to 


beautiful 


ones 


songs 


not 


but 


takes 


little 


your 


better 


them 


under 


4 


7 


than 


she 


her 




softest 


love 


wings 


home 


to 


bird's 


half 


does 


robins 


robin 


little 


much 


them 


of 


is 


rocked 


2 


so 


spring 


8 


sleep 


as 


but 


by 


of 


loves 


mother 


birds 


breezes 


mother's 


you 


5 


9 


sweeter 


your 


mother 


in 


but 


3 


nest 


and 


songs 


is 


to 


are 


so 


be 


of 


is 


10 


sweet 


rocked 


mother's 


home 


as 


sleep 


flowers 


of 


and 


that 


arms 




• 





WORD LIST FOR FIRST BOOK 



277 



FATHEE'S WELCOME HOME 

pp. 16-17. 
Total words, 64 New words, 22. Known words, 7. 



1 


knee ' 


every 


every 


thing 


father's 


thing 


want 


welcome 


did 


over 


how 


all 


again 


happy 


day 


how 


these 


ask 


much 


children 


over 


love 


has 
just 


2 


3 


from 


father 


see 


gather 


work 


come 


him 


ones 


he 


tell 


around 


loves 


stories 


tell 


his 


climb 


him 


little 



them 
on 
him 
tell 



their 
his 
for 
him 

5 

him 
6 
home 



7 
home 

8 
to 

9 
they 

10 

are 

they 



THE HOME OF JESUS 

pp. 18-19. 
Total words, 78. New words, 19. Known words, 11. 



1 


was 


Jesus 


earth 


we 


Jesus 


lived 


3 


have 


Nazareth 


pretty 


2 


songs 


trees 


happy 


sing 


birds 


with 


we 


in 


father 


more 


happy 


love 


our 


sweet 


it 


heaven 


have 


than 


where 


better 


Jesus 


lives 


than 


came 


show 


beautiful 


in 


us 


from 


4 


way 


heaven 


there 


when 


a 



love 

it 

father 

he 

came 

Jesus 

on 



a 

mother 

robins 

their 

his 

he 

but 



6 

of 

7 

nest 
of 

8 

home 
is 

9 

home 

is 

to 

10 

home 



278 



TEACHEKS MANUAL, OF PRIMARY METHODS 



A WELCOME TO JESUS 







pp. 19-21. 






Total words, 


128. 


New words, 


33. 


Known wc 


1 


stars 


how 


with 


he 


sheep 


because 


loves 


loves 


because 


shepherd 


work 


birds 


8 


gives 


who 


so 


for 


teaches 


others 


as 


6 


of 


fly 


know 


from 


his 


build 


one 


4 


a 


their 


nests 


kind 


Jesus 


father 


fills 


gentle 


them 


his 


Jesus 


hearts 


teaching 


songs 


their 


he 


makes 


boat 


how 


he 


loves 


big 


2 


birds 


them 


a 


strong 


with 


him 


9 


roses 


welcome 


welcome 


loves 


lilies 


trees 


sweet 


father 


his 


open 


because 


loves 


7 


he 


fill 


hearts 


flowers 


their 


air 


breezes 


5 


his 


Jesus 


smells 


all 


their 


10 


sends 


3 


Jesus 


a 


sunshine 


father 


Jesus 


to 


rain 


birds 


them 


father 


he 


sunbeams 


welcome 


love 


them 


Jesus 


sky 


sweet 












A SECEET 








p. 22. 






Total words, 


64. 


New words, 


22. 


Known wc 


1 


brought 


one 


beautiful 


7 


learn 


who 


our 


him 


secret 


another 


this 


4 


wherever 


joy 


then 


8 


goes 


grows 


our 


from 


him 


people 


like 


fills 


when 


follow 


flower 


3 


we 


9 


glad 


lives 


in 


a 
loves 


ever 
hear 


sweetness 
2 


when 
heaven 


5 


voice 


every 


it 


10 


or 


made 


we 


6 


his 
a 


into 


look 


secret 


face 


gives 


one 


love 


which 


secret 


hearts 


with 





WOBD LIST FOE FIRST BOOK 



279 





THE TIEED TEACHEE 








pp. 23-24. 






Total words, 


116. 


New words, 


29. Known woi 


1 
tired 


fathers 


tree 


where 


6 


after 
while 


sun 
sing 


4 


birds 


teacher 


go 


there 


little 


flowers 
but 


long 


resting 


pretty 


one 


ago 


hears 


where 


every 


7 


taught 


says 


friends 


come 


with 


until 


let 


go 


work 


Vr 1 HI 


very 


unto 


away 


tell 


8 


friends 


me 


3 


not 


them 


rest 


forbid 


children 




sitting 


2 


then 


5 


9 


green 


made 


him 


shines 


children 


under 


flowers 


them 


brightly 


day 


grass 


when 


10 


sweetly 


long 


children 


from 


play 


people 


sing 


little 


loves 


mothers 


tired 


give 


come 


their 


some 


big 


all 


not 


them 


pick 











THE LITTLE CHILDEEN 

pp. 24-26. 



Total words, 124. 



smiles 

calls 

tells 

crowd 

boy 

curly 

head 

heart 

blessing 

girl 

giving 

picked 

places 

hand 

blesses 

near 

can 



put 

stay 

always 

talks 

clap 

hands 

about 

2 

that 

sitting 

resting 

she 

has 

head 

makes 

very 

want 

joy 



New words, 24. 



tells 
stories 
about 
knee 



around 

her 

this 

very 

much 

be 

arms 

want 

tells 



happy 
all 



as 

around 

beautiful 

heaven 

her 



children 

one 

on 

her 

as 

in 



little 

children 

on 



Known words, 49. 

7 

little 

children 

love 

8 

little 

flowers 

children 

with 

9 

little 
with 
father 

10 

him 

little 



280 



TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PBIMABY METHODS 



Total words, 136. 



A SWEET LESSON 

pp. 27-28. 
New words, 24. 



take 

must 

wait 

do 

parents 

will 

say 

art 

hallowed 

thy 

name 

kingdom 

daily 

bread 

forgive 

trespasses 

trespass 

against 

lead 

temptation 



deliver 
evil 
amen 
lesson 



ask 

while 

some 

earth 

take 

father's 

can 

stay 

ever 

thy 

will 

done 

us 

forgive 

into 

teaches 



good 

ever 

who 

thy 

earth 

day 

us 

that 



see 

tells 

be 

then 

our 

give 

this 

us 



Known words, 48. 



all 



work 


but 


tells 


us 


every 


from 


heaven 


our 


be 


7 


our 


we 


on 


us 


for 


sweet 


as 


6 


8 


for 


love 


one 


9 


tells 


all 


love 


come 

"ha 


10 


ue 
as 


father 


it 


with 


in 




heaven 




not 





THE BABIES' BREAKFAST 

pp. 32-33. 
Total words, 75. New words, 20. Known words, 23. 



1 


wide 


blossoms 


5 


8 


yellow 


just 


this 


. 


babies' 


mouths 


open 


in 

robin 

for 


what 


drops 


3 


6 


dining-room 


worm 






cradle 


each 


breakfast 


this 


9 


wind 


2 


pretty 


sweet 


of 


pink 


rocked 


mother 


white 


cradle 


has 


her 


10 


blossoms 


were 


big 


7 


of 


wide 


sleep 


she 


full 


by 


into 


birds 




smell 


apple 


4 


in 




may 


sunbeams 


from 




babies 


air 


breakfast 


come 





WORD LIST FOR FIRST BOOK 



281 



HOME FKOM MAEKET 

pp. 34-35. 
Total words, 47. New words, 9. Known words, 16. 



market 
babies 
do 
sweeter 



market 

mouthful 

grasshoppers 

get 

working 3 

learned 

too tired 

hungry ones 



have 
take 

4 

has 

that 

than 

5 

give 



Mr. 
Mrs. 

7 

not 
it 

8 
from 



from 
robin 
for 

10 

robin 
for 



THE TWO MOTHEES 

pp. 36-37. 



Total words, 


1 82. 


New words, 


9. 


Known word 


1 


mothers 


chicks 


5 


her 


boy 


you 


under 


mother 


gave 


bread 


hen 


as 


share 


hen 


wings 


6 


us 


asks 


calls 


mothers 


7 


9 


mamma 


chicks 




hen 


I 


4 


this 


as 


chicks 


says 


pretty 
she 


mother 


mother 


gathers 


gather 


hen 


her 


keeps 


3 


all 


children 


care 


much 


us 


10 


2 


some 


ones 


8 


does 


under 


love 


two 


do 


hearts 


it 


her 



A FAMILY BEEAKFAST 

pp. 38-39. 
Total words, 120. New words, 12. Known words, 50. 



1 


gets 


food 


what 


fly 


ready 


feed 


no 


fathers 


family 


old 


2 


cozy 


always 


eat 


enough 


care 


3 


best 


themselves 


asks 


until 


brings 


bring 


blessing 


learn 


morning 



282 



TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 



calls 


care 


6 


give 


all 


apple 


have 




o 


we 


tree 
babies 


do 
5 


every 
breakfast 


8 
not 


10 


care 


we 

robins 
give 
when 


breakfast 


mother 


until 


take 


our 


as 


will 


so 


all 


children 


4 


much 


we 


we 


that 


7 


9 


us 


so 


have 






good 


happy 


our 


us 




take 


tell 


breakfast 


on 




mothers 


breakfast 


we 







FEEDING HEE BIEDS 







pp. 40-41. 






Total words, 


133. 


New words, 


26. 


Known words 


1 


dolly 


dolly 


big 


one 


things 


get 


arms 


happy 


feeding 


knows 


at 


some 


8 


lets 


crumbs 


old 


hen 


sit 


holds 


feeding 


will 


birds 


door 


arm 


baby 


boy 


come 


step 


neck 


glad 


there 


9 


cool 


turn 


hand 


5 


shade 


next 


3 


it 


rose 


2 


see 


in 


vine 


there 


good 


breakfast 


yard 


warm 


can 


has 


10 


called 


full 


boy 


around 


left 


sunshine 


too 


will 


on 


cart 


working 


look 


6 


from 


sister 


play 


girl 


happy 


all 


dropped 


girl 


4 


in 


basket 


playing 


7 




apples 


keeps 


day 


be 





Total words, 236. 



JESUS FEEDS THE PEOPLE 

pp. 42-44. 
New words, 46. Known words, 96. 



1 


crossed 


going 


hurry 


knew 


lake 


followed 


forgot 


told 


feeds 


quiet 


shore 


talked 


down 


been 


place 


meet 


send 


asked 


wanted 


saw 


landed 


by 


loaves 



WOBD LIST FOR FIRST BOOK 



283 



fishes 


rest 


friends 


ever 


were 


St. 


boat 


away 


made 


made 


Philip 


was 


food 


hungry 


tired 


five 


lake 


had 


babies 


that 


many 


food 


said 


no 


7 


took 


hungry 


two 


you 


blessed 


wanted 


was 


5 


when 


Andrew 


sit 


bread 


so 


pass 


green 


fishes 


day 


around 


also 


loaves 


gave 


people 


people 


fed 


fishes 


full 


then 


were 


thousand 


enough 


hungry 


how 


robins 


men 


gave 


no 


tired 


8 


twelve 


St. 


glad 


were 


baskets 


blessed 


these 


boy 


but 


thankful 


five 


praise 


there 


this 


poor 


left 


4 


very 


people 


join 


did 


TE 


ever 


happy 


vesper 


feed 


people 


made 


so 


dearest 


these 


looking 


6 


9 


Lord 


song 


were 


\J 


thank 


say 


very 


so 


but 


time 


3 


tired 


around 


not 


2 


grass 


take 


people 


people 


friends 


people 


10 


had 


were 


food 


how 


teaching 


long 


had 


much 


but 






SUMMER 








pp. 49-51. 






Total words, 


151. 


New words, 


32. 


Known word 


1 


winds 


2 


3 


glad 


X 


news 




apple 


now 


far 


time 


green 


tree 


June 


boys 


roses 


time 


baby 


whisper 


girls 


summer 


sunbeams 


blossoms 


brooks 


gone 


June 


joy 


want 


run 


played 


cool 


June 


fly 


through 


coaxed 


wide 


play 


away 


fields 


miss 


hear 


baby 


5 


singing 


hung 


news 


up 


tune 


afraid 


pink 


fly 


here 


dance 


feel 


white 


4 


sing 


shadows 


leave 


blossoms 


time 


woods 


first 


wind 


sing 


pretty 


bluebirds' 


venture 


like 


time 


apple 


music 


summer 


afraid 


earth 


away 


whole 


sweetest 


comes 


full 


baby 



284 



TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PBIMAEY METHODS 



songs 


day 


S 


nest 


birds 


welcome 






flowers 


nest 


6 


7 


robins 


when 






one 




10 


tell 


that 


that 


9 




time 


time 


around 


robins 


robins 



BEEAKFAST ON THE GEASS 

p. 52. 

Total words, 51. New words, 3. Known words, 26. 



1 


called 


morning 


will 


8 


to-day 


3 


5 


grass 
ones 


time 


early 


left 


grass 




9 


busy 


family 


tree 


7 


this 


2 


feeding 


ones 




one 


m 


4 


6 


Mr. 




family 


Mrs. 


10 


first 


four 


apple 


take 


break 






THE EESCUE 








pp. 53-54. 






Total words, 


140. 


New words, 


34. 


Known w< 


1 


save 


ready 


old 


away 


fight 


bird 


5 


how 


rescue 


an 


cat 


sweet 


noise 


even 


cheer 


looking 


tells 


nearby 


voices 


sly 


babies 


ones 


bush 


sound 


fear 


she 


8 


naughty 


truants 


busy 


fly 


hop 


cheer 


worm 


big 


Mr. 


sly 


steals 


out 


up 


Mrs. 


cat 


soothes 


3 


6 


sweet 


slowly 


smoothes 


away 
see 


away 


creeping 


feathers 


while 


Q 


behind 


pulling, 


what 


has 


u 


almost 


fat 


old 


good 
sing 


that 


jaws 


ground 


cheer 


sweet 


sorry 


snake 


cat 


babies 


10 


ran 
fear 


2 


4 


there 


not 


cry 


save 


two 


7 


one 


out 


bush 


up 


there 





WOBD LIST FOB FIBST BOOK 



285 



A VISIT TO THE COUNTEY 

pp. 55-58. 
Total words, 275. New words, 59. Known words, 115. 



1 


refuge 


hurt 


chick 


May 


soon 


chick 


save 


girl 


visit 


comes 


after 


mamma 


7 


country 


getting 


May's 


did 


city 


along 


almost 


4 


has 


new 


start 


way 


every 


strange 


back 


pass 


girl 


she 


never 


house 


yard 


who 


will 


seen 


supper 


sees 


play 


see 


real 


barn 


yellow 


just 


8 


live 


runs 


thinks 


afraid 


chickens 


dreadful 


pick 


thing 


she 


ducks 


hiss 


hears 


can 


be 


geese 


gander 


mamma 


hand 


tells 


before 


trying 


me 


May 


how 


bit 


goslings 


takes 


out 


has 


cousins 


frightened 


frightened 


chicks 


9 


Bessie 


crys 


gander 


was 


Frank 


hurries 


get 


save 


come 


taken 


mean 


3 


hurt 


has 


grove 


only 


family 


she 


log 


taking 


always 


up 


so 


shady 


back 


first 


while 


be 


chick 


balls 


thing 


5 


time 


placed 


2 


or 


when 


May's 


just 


girl 


tells 


scenes 


May 


afraid 


May 


10 


touch 


lived 


out 


some 


downy 


visit 


sitting 


old 


has 


hurt 


country 


cool 


out 


it 


won't 


or 


May 


arms 


she 


fall 


Bessie 


knee 


was 


that 


sees 


place 


hand 


care 


so 


thinks 


holds 


Frank 


6 




wood 


Frank 


holds 




nice 


brought 


get 


she 




keep 


tiny 


hurt 


have 





Total words, 450. 



THE SAVTOUB 

pp. 59-64. 
New words, 86. 



1 
Saviour 



grown 

often 

need 



stronger 

Peter 

other 



some 
times 
sent 



Known words, 211. 

other 

side 

alone 



286 



TEACHERS MANUAL OF PEIMARY METHODS 



mountain 


black 


been 


stars 


friends 


pray 


clouds 


asleep 


other 


then 


grew 


cover 


once 


even 


very 


dark 


moon 


gentle 


loaves . 


you 


reached 


great 


sound 


busy 


out 


rowing 


storm 


waves 


4 


save 


oars 


arises 


sky 


me 


walking 


beat 


grows 


get 


boat 


waters 


filling 


dark 


fishes 


was 


saying 


water 


stars 


boat 


looking 


bid 


beginning 


sink 


tired 


afraid 


safe 


perish 


cry 


frightened 


7 


land 


wakes 


terror 


St. 




because 


why 


still 


me 


up 


thinking 


oh 


next 


says 


some 


obeying 


ye 


moon 


look 


good 


once 


faith 


quiet 


Lord 


out 


feels 


rising 


whisper 


long 


day 


waves 


rebukes 


each 


into 


boat 


troubled 


commands 


storm 


lake 


save 


beneath 


obey 


3 


at 


friends 


feet 


moment 


men 


you 


begins 


wonder 


frightened 


waves 


then 


sink 


obeys 


St. 


winds 


8 


terror 


2 


boat 


5 




lays 


lake 


ones 


hold 


only 


knows 


than 


were 


help 


themselves 


me 


saved 


see 


reaches 


even 


hear 


friends 


then 


saves 


evening 


fear 


afraid 


out 


cross 


fed 


I 


up 


tired 


fell 


went 


says 


you 


there 


breezes 


knows 


Lord 


me 


boat 


blowing 


other 


Peter 


St. 


9 


set 


side 


goes 


boat 




sails 


men 


only 


frightened 


were 


dances 


Lord 


at 


hand 


then 


upon 


winds 


walking 


into 


there 
out 


blew 


against 


makes 


Lord 


lapping 


sorry 


teaching 


says 


10 


red 


goes 


evening 


waves 


people 

sweet 

be 


gold 


voice 


went 


at 


purple 


cheer 


men 


men 


lights 


Peter 


waters 


lake 


die 


down 


against 


because 


come 

this 

time 


western 


walking 


side 


6 


peace 


waters 


waves 


still 


cries 


winds 


baby 




night 


another 


once 


some 





WORD LIST FOR FIRST BOOK 



287 



Total words, 116. 



THE BROKEN WING 

pp. 69-70. 
New words, 15. Known words, 59. 

boy 

7 
babies 

8 

some 
every 

9 

happy 
every 

10 

birds 
when 



1 


finger 


gets 


5 


bumps 


3 


get 


broken 


2 


do 


wing 


bird 


hurt 


protect 


fill 


cry 


where 


danger 


whole 


parents 


knows 


breaks 


world 


go 


go 


call 


times 


head 




crawls 


trouble 


4 


6 


among 


parents 


songs 


weeds 


hurry 


does 


into 


unkind 


wing 


what 


because 


know 


help 


or 


do 


sick 


die 


knows 


hurt 


cuts 


alone 


go 


where 



THE SICK CHILD 

pp. 71-72. 



Total words, 


113. 


New words, 


14. Known w< 


1 


2 


father's 


mother's 


girl 


sick 


voice 


cool 


day 


child 


feels 


4 


g 


9 


cheek 


land 


T. 


\M 


pressed 


never 


holds 


arms 


will 


hot 


night 


mother's 


fly 


away 


brow 


touch 


cool 


hand 


our 


dream 


strong 


against 


7 


10 


pictures 




wings 






own 


3 


sick 


girl 


we 


forget 


sick 


until 


sing 


will 


watch 


better 


fear 


have 


away 


nurse 


song 


sleep 


do 


every 


well 


over 


5 


8 




pain 


takes 




drives 


sound 


hearts 


will 






JESUS HEALS THE SICK 








pp. 72-75. 






Total words, 


288. 


New words, 


36. Known wo 


1 


woman 


sicker 


sparrows 


heard 


life 


looked 


used 


cured 


heals 


nursed 


loved 


remembered 


blind 



288 



TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 



lame 


many 


feed 


spring 


at 


dumb 


days 


blessed 


morning 


boy 


speak 


knew 


told 


thing 


9 


healed 


grew 


country 


what 


neighbor 


remembered 


knew 


while 


up 


being 


loved 


town 


came 


flowers 


carried 


coming 


many 


who 


how 


waited 


town 


by 


full 


had 


whom 


more 


cured 


beautiful 


was 


waiting 


picked 


child 


6 


around 


roadside 


carried 


come 


day 


passed 


cured 


faith 


sick 


sick 


along 


own 


fills 


at 


10 


crowded 


faith 


sees 


had 


eyes 


grew 


4 


hearts 


day 


child's 


stronger 


7 


then 


fever 


last 


joy 


how 


leaves 


speak 


first 


at 


were 


overflowing 


lays 


about 


had 


there 


healing 


lilies 


brought 


made 


up 


could 


saw 


over 


hand 


had 


nothing 


thankful 


head 


sick 


was 


2 


3 


child 


8 


around 


did 


sick 


poor 


lived 


5 


was 




told 


brought 


do 




leave 


stories 


sick 


had 






about 


blossoms 


sick 





Total words, 395. 



THE APPLE TEEE 

pp. 81-85. 
New words, 47. 



remember 

read 

waking 

April 

showers 

washed 

skies 

clear 

brown 

awoke 

felt 

buds 

climbing 

nestled 

close 

garden 



breath 

kept 

cradles 

crooned 

lullaby 

grow 

blossom 

given 

make 

brothers 

sisters 

its 

silk 

covers 

soft 

brother 

nestlings 

bye-lo 



Known words, 207. 



prays 

man 

leans 

kiss 

pure 

small 

story 

right 

tries 

think 

true 

doing 

dear 



new 
blue 
buds 



leaves 


blossom 


shade 


sister 


played 


feathers 


flower 


prays 


took 


3 


know 


breath 


days 


loved 


whole 


grow 


sun 


brother 


night 


girls 


wanted 


boys 


trees 


best 


tiny 


wants 


own 


live 


sweeter 


life 


buds 


lullaby 


grow 


make 


strong 



WOKD LIST FOB FIRST BOOK 



289 



like 


hear 


old 


old 


arms 


cradle 


learn 


mother's 


pretty 


9 


almost 


voice 


no 


mother's 


know 


5 


blossoms 


may 


at 


girls 


cool 


thing 


some 


wants 


about 


pretty 


grow 


tree 


learn 


glad 


care 


tree 


baby 


world 


over 


glad 


no 


good 


4 


winds 


what 


8 


boy 


stories 


grow 


apple 


stories 


holds 


stories 


made 


do 


green 


sleep 


like 


baby 


like 


days 


grow 


ever 


tree 


10 


song 


like 


over 


good 


grow 


hear 


about 


apple 


nest 


sings 


told 


7 


told 


baby 


better 


did 


1 


old 


our 


parents 


play 


apple 


into 


into 


wants 


6 


spring 


no 


good 


by 


baby 


pretty 


boy 


trees 


tree 


arms 


may 


tree 


night 


spring 


because 


like 


happy 


like 


thing 


into 


you 





OUB HOME IN HEAVEN 

p. 86. 
Total words, 115. New words, 9. Known words, 68. 



my 

heavenly 

son 

model 

became 

babe 

try 

shall 

perfect 

2 

ye 



perfect 

heavenly 

learned 

sent 

man 

show 

if 



live 

another 
loved 
ready 



always 

your 

live 

only 

grew 

I 



does 
wants 
cannot 
until 



live 

learn 

want 



says 

knows 

live 

7 

heaven 

says 

live 



8 

earth 

have 

heaven 

9 

have 

heaven 

you 

10 

like 



1 

years 



THE MOTHER OF JESUS 



Total words, 115. 



promised 
promises 
cling 



p. 87. 
New words, 12. 

chose 
Mary 
angels 



charge 

guardian 

angel 



Known words, 64. 

filled 
Joseph 



290 



TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 



2 


protect 


ready 


joy 


3 


whole 


grew 


send 


gave 


6 


son 


heavenly 


love 


branch 


- gets 


buds 


beautiful 


before 


before 


5 


long 


getting 


gives 


came 


name 


4 


long 


St. 


Mary- 


world 


7 


lives 


many 


ready 


woman 


comes 


child 


beautiful 


given 


world 


parents 


over 



8 
spring 

9 
spring 

10 
flowers 



THE FIEST CHEISTMAS 

pp. 89-90. 
Total words, 176 New words, 25. Known words, 95. 



1 


Christ 


feet 


4 


child 


wrapped 


Virgin's 


town 
went 
side 
stars 


first 


Christmas 


swaddling 


heart 


7 


cold 


clothes 


full 


winter 


laid 


wonder 


St. 


Bethlehem 


manger 


Christmas 


tell 


inn 


kneel 


room 


cave 
blessed 


8 


same 


2 


3 






words 


5 


St. 


found 


guardian 


Mary 


first 


9 


cave 


angel 


door 


night 


hill 


Joseph 


room 


town 


no 


oxen 


reached 


last 


whole 


arms 


sleeping 


door 


never 


blessed 


10 


seemed 


heard 


cave 


went 




Virgin 


bright 


Joseph 


/» 


at 


lighted 


cave 


make 


6 


no 


warmed 


sweetest 


bright 


go 


some 


floated 


music 


warm 


night 


have 


lay 


angels 


resting 


while 


heaven 



WOKD LIST FOE FIKST BOOK 



291 








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CHAPTER XXII 
WOED LIST FOE SECOND BOOK 



THE THEEE LITTLE MILKWEED SISTEES 

pp. 15-17. 
Total words, 480. New words, 49. Known words, 255. 



1 


nook 


onions 


sisters 


big 


corner 


3 


sun 


world 


Flossie 


briars 


know 


can 


Fluffy 


hard 


three 


place 


your 


Flitter 


thanked 


sisters 


homes 


ready 


stony 


kindness 


poor 


last 


own 


hillside 


began 


enough 


puff 


room 


am 


milkweed 


place 


flower 


get 


stones 


a 


wind 


other 


wants 


poky 


grumbling 


homes 


among 


work 


homes 


living 


eat 


quiet 


want 


worked 


2 


quiet 


once 


sisters 


autumn 


way 


said 


wind 


puff 


sisters 


milkweed 


own 


just 


find 


milkweed 


May's 


wind 


here 


plenty 


small 


shines 


room 


place 


earn 


dear 


among 


eat 


puff 


suit 


eat 


sorry 


milkweed 


7 


flew 


it's 


best 


5 


dandelion 


let 


passed 


very 


goldenrod 


homes 


let 


I 


ever 


thistle 


puff 


things 


said 


go 


stopped 


asked 


given 


comes 


long 


suited 


kind 


bed 


sisters 


said 


pushed 


shall 


cozy 


just 


me 


pansies 


things 


trouble 


wind 


glad 


surprised 


among 


carried 


three 


what 


rudeness 


shines 


garden 


place 


I 


gently 


fields 


down 


sun 


want 


spare 


passed 


heard 


room 


where 


paid 


garden 


puff 


puff 


can 


attention 


herself 


flower 


two 


came 


planted 


wait 


4 


enough 


wind 


herself 


put 


make 


here 


bed 


thistles 


three 


own 


care 


onion 


living 


lived 


6 


your 


off 


winter 


never 


puff 


yes 


Flitter 


gives 


who 


place 


Wood 


Fluffy 


make 


me 


get 


don't 


Flossie 


enough 


said 


ready 


hid 


my 


bright 


I 


sister 



WORD LIST FOR SECOND BOOK 



295 



8 

go 

said 

I 

want 

where 

over 

long 



wind 

sisters 

take 

grow 

very 

here 

9 
tired 



I 

said 


grow 
10 
old 


I 

where 


where 
want 


spring 
wind 


pretty 
Mr. 
old 
see 


you 
see 
do 
said 





THE QUEEN OF THE BUTTEEFLIES 

pp. 18-23. 
Total words, 702. New words, 87. Known words, 381. 



1 


staid 


clay 


bravely 


phantoms 


queen 


deep 


ghosts 


butterflies 


got 


fallen 


leafless 


drink 





stemless 


reach 


flakes 


floating 


goldfinches 


naked 


rainbow's 


built 


mourning 


scattering 


elder-bush 


host 


bower 


rock 


unseen 


bubble 


covered 


truant 


blown 


dust 


spirits 


fairies 


dying 


clad 


seed 


thirst 


violets 


scion 


honey 


cups 


find 


dainty 


2 


bearing 


wish 


awakened 


cradleful 


rains 


yawned 


happiest 


could 


stretched 


Brookville 


find 


roots 


helped 


crowded 


swallowed 


dew 


nothing 


hoe 


drips 


Wood 


greedy 


modest 


cut 


sharp 


gleaming 


off 


spread 


morn 


hoe 


prettier 


born 


awoke 


few 


holes 


pushed 


soften 


scraps 


through 


part 


growing 


ground 


stealing 


wild 


found 


angry 


travel 


pansies 


nasty 


vain 


weed 


pulled 


happened 


cold 


threw 


draw 


snow 


fence 


picture 


corner 


woke 


throwing 


hard 



kept 


3 


worked 


air 


roots 


kind 


beside 


winter's 


singing 


onions 


great 


saw 


hot 


right 


butterflies 


leaves 


honey 


sunshine 


drink 


say 


queen 


leaves 


thanked 


sunshine 


fairies 


say 


am 


after 


going 


die 


news 


open 


others 


fields 


dew 


ground 


violets 


thistles 


God 


sent 


holes 


could 


lets 


stronger 


fall 


summer 


scraps 


butterflies 


seen 


put 


why 


pink 


which 


rest 


would 


asked 


greedy 


honey 


happened 


drink 


model 


been 


babies 


my 


bearing 


send 


briars 


dear 


fence 


worked 



296 



TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 



hard 

roses 

blue 

dew 

cuts 

through 

called 

sister 

why 

which 

happened 

ye 

angels 

again 

snow 



thy 

warm 

things 

strong 

left 

garden 

bed 

wanted 

best 

sunshine 

after 

could 

feed 

summer 

sorry 

butterflies 



rest 

kind 

heard 

roses 

way 

down 

sister 

which 

cradle 

leaves 

through 

ye 



flower 

eat 

head 

garden 

other 

days 

beds 

hungry 

left 

after 

milkweed 

could 

wanted 

gave 

butterfly 

know 

stars 

look 

sister 



which 

kind 

trees 

or 

green 

6 

sleep 

grew 

flower 

than 

bed 

told 

sun 

food 

other 

two 

hear 

milkweed 

days 

went 

whole 

know 

garden 

did 

sister 

play 

which 

winds 



blossoms 
big 



who 

bed 

while 

grew 

own 

sleep 

flower 

told 

milkweed 

world 

full 

sisters 

8 

tell 

came 

what 

thing 

big 

get 

who 

babies 

flower 

blossoms 

place 

ready 

your 

milkweed 

glad 

sisters 

friends 

what 



May 

long 

came 

big 

over 

ones 

go 

me 

babies 

full 

place 

earth 

milkweeds 

who 

what 

10 

Mr. 

May 

long 

big 

full 

me 

sisters 

what 

over 

go 

came 

milkweeds 



Total words, 243. 



MAY'S BIRTHDAY 

pp. 24-25. 
New words, 42. 



birthday 

bursting 

steps 

sparkling 

peeping 

lilac 

grey 

squirrel 

jumped 

maple 



whisked 

bushy 

tail 

danced 

curls 

dress 

beads 

sash 

seven 

eighth 

September 

lady's 



Mass 

I'd 

hug 

wash 

manners 

party 

afternoon 

pet 

handful 

nuts 

path 

gate 



walked 

across 

bridge 

church 

during 

having 

prayed 

I'm 



ran 
hill 



Known words, 118. 

eyes 

surprise 

golden 

white 

don't 

birthday 

dress 

beads 

years 

to-day 

I'm 

now 



WOED LIST FOE SECOND BOOK 



297 



face 

must 

threw 

join 

Mass 

Brook ville 



heart 

singing 

bush 

ran 

new 

it's 

birthday 

I'm 

Wood 



thanked 

God 

would 

brother 

going 

am 

took 

4 

May's 

dew 

cat 

bird 

blue 

dear 

my 

it's 



too 

ran 

given 

God 

send 

new 



down 

welcome 

look 

gave 

my 

eat 

May's 

best 



May's 


morning 


down 


7 


my 


blue 


garden 


best 


sun 


too 


just 


6 


did 


know 


joy 


morning 



down 
gave 

8 

beautiful 
just 
garden 
hand 



get 
your 
glad 
girl 

10 

your 



Total words, 300. 



THE SECEET 

pp. 26-28. 
New words, 47. 



Known words, 162. 



1 

tossing 

chattered 

muffin 

ring 

round 

rosy 

London 

fine 

seek 

choosing 

leaders 

hare 

hounds 

strawberry 

ice-cream 

cake 

candles 

burning 

brightly 

riding 

hood 

Cinderella 

orchard 

shook 

caught 

juicy 



pears 

branches 

grapes 

vines 

saved 

fruit 

Maud 

bouquet 

altar 

watered 

tended 

peas 

four-o'clocks 

asters 

classmates 

begged 

grant 

answered 

earthly 

starlight 

darling 



party 

began 

maple 

jumped 

bushy 



tail 

back 

bridge 

hide 

run 

sheep 

seven 

red 

apples 

fell 

purple 

lady's 

bouquets 

church 

prayed 

altar 

wish 

soon 

watered 



secret 

shade 

branch 

played 

man 

run 

house 



red 

pick 

each 

lilies 

lady's 

kept 

Virgin 

prayer 

asleep 

angel 

guardian 



branch 

called 

birthday 

took 

red 

let 

Prank 

pink 

secret 

lilies 

would 

brother 

put 

lady's 



5 

summer 

birthday 

roses 

way 

send 

bright 

brought 

brother 



under 
trees 
summer 
blessed 



May's 

stories 

about 

best 

went 

other 

which 

summer 

night 



298 



TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 



8 


gave 


May's 


beautiful 


May's 


while 


morning 


flower 


10 




May's 


9 


garden 


place 




told 


just 


told 


beautiful 






A BUNCH OF EOSES 








p. 29. 






Total words, 


45. 


New words, 


12. 


Known words, 18. 


1 


weather 


half 


5 


7 


fingers 


meet 




play 


rosy 


together 


kiss 


never 


toe 


bunch 


3 


6 


8 


month 


mouth 


about 


met 


2 


rosy 


roses 


other 


neighbors 


4 


brother 


nowadays 


rosy 


until 




sort 


ago 


peach 


way 








QUESTIONS 








p. 29. 






Total words, 


80. 


New words, 


6. 


Known words, 48. 


1 
whose 


saved 


cut 


7 


ready 


part 
story 


5 


birthday 


birthday 
10 


feast 


3 


lady's 


8 


wear 


Frank 


did 


did 


lady 


ask 


6 


know 


get 


paper 


picture 




birthday 


apple 


paint 


4 


birthday 


best 




2 




comes 






why 


blue 


9 




picture 


white 


make 


did 








KING DAVID 








pp. 30-32. 






Total words. 


, 354. 


New words, 


39. 1 


Known words, 207. 


1 


watchful 


listening 


soothed 


Goliath 


leading 


lion 


pleased 


dressed 


king 


harm 


stole 


brave 


brass 


David 


brook 


grabbed 


those 


iron 


flocks 


pasture 


started 


giant 


spear 


lambs 


harp 


killed 


named 


sword 



WORD LIST FOR SECOND BOOK 



299 



loud 


neck 


playing 


voice 


God 


scared 


king 


shade 


cut 


loved 


soldiers 


giant 


lambs 


by 


songs 


kill 


brook 


run 


6 


8 


slingshot 


stone 


poor 


smooth 


sword 


great 


never 


went 


stone 


taught 


giant's 


took 


care 


bottom 


3 


off 


loved 


David 


struck 


heart 


sheep 


took 


forehead 


sheep 


carried 


David 


down 


knocked 


playing 


cry 


lamb 


God 


2 


keeps 


5 


brought 


9 


shepherd 


God 


near 


David 


quite 


wanted 


gave 


shepherd 


fed 


fear 


called 


very 


safe 


lambs 


lived 


head 


made 


David 


off 


took 


after 


David 


Bethlehem 


back 


loved 


7 


God 


charge 


great 


sheep 


took 


forgot 


giant 


called 


much 


went 


lambs 


king 


David 


eat 


10 


followed 


ago 


heard 


took 


wherever 


4 


lambs 


sheep 


told 


behind 


ran 


David 


David 


flock 


feeding 


its 


lambs 


arms 


mouth 


sheep 


God 


never 




lion 


drink 


strong 


afraid 




caught 


David 


always 


days 





MARY'S PARENTS 

p. 32. 
Total words, 119. New words, 6. Known words, 79. 



1 

Joachim 


Anna 


obey 


things 


8 


lonely 
obeyed 


4 


Mary 
6 


because 
loved 


Anna 


pleased 


virgin's 


belonged 


promised 


king 


parents 


9 


moved 


3 


worked 


poor 




age 


hard 


always 


because 


daughter 


give 


church 


7 


10 


2 


Bethlehem 


5 


church 


blessed 


made 


Nazareth 


Nazareth 


Mary's 


parents 


God's 


Joachim 


teach 


poor 


wanted 


took 



300 



TEACHEES MANUAL OF PBIMAKY METHODS 



MARY'S CHILDHOOD 

pp. 33-34. 



Total words, 274. 



childhood 

wished 

joyously 

bible 

promise 

perfectly 

tried 

most 

obedience 

education 

step 

bad 

without 

halting 

lifting 

presentation 

temple 

please 

obedient 



giving 



helped 

daughter 

read 

please 

bible 

waiting 

pure 

step 

lift 

without 



sweetest 

more 

taught 

Anna 

read 

son 

prayed 

show 

learned 

promised 

find 

wished 



New words, 19. 



woman 
pure 
pleased 
helped 



thanked 

more 

taught 

read 

son 

obey 

knew 

world 

Joseph 

sent 



heart 

king 

great 

lily 

rest 

better 



Virgin 



Mary's 
send 
heart 
virgin 



work 

earth 

always 

joy 

make 

of 

Mary 

8 

world 
parents 
wanted 
grew 
always 



Known words, 178. 



best 

everything 

Mary 

about 

down 

wanted 

take 

care 

loved 

10 

girl 

loved 

everything 

about 

best 

earth 

full 

Mary 



THE ANNUNCIATION 

pp. 35-37. 



Total words, 349. 



praying 

annunciation 

telling 

thanking 

goodness 

promising 

thought 

action 

light 

suddenly 

standing 

hail 

grace 

thee 



thou 

women 

understand 

hast 

chosen 

happen 

behold 

handmaid 

according 

twenty-fifth 

year 

announced 

womb 

sinners 

hour 

death 



New words, 30. 



word 

2 

sparkling 

filled 

light 

thinking 

looked 

sweetness 

art 

thou 

grace 

obedient 

unto 

Holy 

Ghost 



Known words, 230. 



word 

annunciation 

think 

hail 

thee 

March 

women 

fruit 

pray 

Amen 



much 
life 
face 
found 



Heavenly 

done 

visit 

grace 

art 

thou 

holy 

now 

annunciation 



pure 

singing 

again 

saw 

angel 



WORD LIST FOR SECOND BOOK 



301 



door 

pleased 

asked 

going 

say 

5 

white 

dew 

obey 

angel 

among 

pure 



son 

would 

thy 



lilies 

bright 

fear 

angel 

would 

among 

Lord 



room 

lily 

Virgin 

angel 

send 

child 

Lord 

S 

songs 
blessed 



save 

angel 

Virgin 

afraid 

Lord 



morning 

hand 

blessed 

angel 

Virgin 



10 

world 

glad 

garden 

because 

down 

blessed 

angel's 



Total words, 90. 



1 

gardener's 

garters 

purse 

bachelor's 

buttons 

smock 

hollyhock 

fairy 

bee 

dames 

below 

boughs 

weave 

tree 



braver 

thyme 

fair 

fairest 

tall 

should 



nurse 

places 

fairy 

woods 

wild 

whose 

shady 

tops 



THE FLOWERS 

p. 38 
New words, 20. 



rose 

climb 

grown 



names 

fairy 

must 

woods 

fairies 

if 



shepherd's 

tiny 

these 



fairy 

names 

house 

fairies 

woods 



wings 

tiny 

these 

6 

lady's 
things 
tiny 
too 



Known words, 32. 

7 

lady 

trees 

tiny 

8 

trees 
live 

9 

know 



QUESTIONS 

p. 38. 



Total words, 


225. 


New words, 


6. 


Known words, 166 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


animals 


need 


seen 


lamb 


shepherd 


beasts 


Goliath 


lion 


story 


why 


book 


doing 


story 


teach 


teach 


choose 


paint 


Joachim 


help 


read 


fold 


shadow 


Anna 




sent 


blackboard 


picture 


help 




say 


1 


draw 


picture 




land 




paper 






house 



302 



TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 



10 



king 


called 


sheep 


live 


take 


why 


king 


eat 


sheep 


care 


great 


why 


make 


afraid 


tell 


son 


say 


called 


tell 


flower 


say 


cut 


lamb 


songs 


hand 


cut 




POEM 

p. 40. 




Virgin 


Total words, 


38. 


New words, 


7. Known words, 21 


1 


message 


3 


6 


7 


flight 

bent 

wherein 


knelt 


obedient 


sent 


bright 


bowed 
2 


4 
found 


heard 
thy 


head 
9 


dwelt 


handmaid 


am 




Lord 




LITTLE FIR'S DREAM 








pp. 45-47. 






Total words, 


356. 


New words, 


47. Known words, 208 


1 


sounded 


thought 


talk 


honey 


seashore 


autumn 


poplar 


must 


fir's 


pines 


taking 


3 


air 


fir 


common 


forest 


winter 


edge 


playmates 


fir 


looked 


forest 


pine 


ocean 


keep 


reached 


looked 


forest 


rivers 


tried 


soon 


before 


blueberry 


lakes 


awake 


forest 


fir 


bushes 


floors 


noise 


leave 


wished 


himself 


carpets 


saying 


lift 


back 


quite 


heat 


pine 


feet 


sunbeams 


noon 


trunks 


lapping 


fill 


5 


nap 


stored 


clouds 


brown 


leaf 


treasures 


bring 


protect 


only 


stirring 


hundred 


water 


pine 


going 


silent 


poplar 


wash 


talking 


warm 


drowsy 


rustled 


cover 


speak 


carried 


hum 


silver 


soft 


fir 


off 


bees 


waked 


storms 


sky 


once 


laden 


bending 


seem 


clouds 


feed 


dreamland 


wondered 


stopped 


poplar 


sunbeams 


talking 


oak 


silence 


themselves 


leaves 


anyone 


elm 


covered 


dreamland 


again 


nodded 


2 


black 


4 


6 


silence 


often 


spoke 


dream 


dreamland 


sound 


could 



WORD LIST FOR SECOND BOOK 



303 



voice 

obey 

better 

going 

sunbeams 

waves 



after 

winds 

grass 

going 

hear 



8 

bright 
head 
after 
summer 



grew 

trees 

much 

called 

heads 

other 

after 

summers 



10 

while 

lords 

trees 

heads 

just 

wind 



Total words, 76. 



toss 

kites 

blow 

ladies' 

skirts 

different 

push 



yourself 
high 

2 

across 

yourself 

hid 

felt 

call 



POEM 

p. 47. 
New words, 9. 



O 

blowing 
loud 

3 

storm 

pass 

O 



4 

sky 

5 

sings 
song 

7 

heard 



Known words, 47. 

things 
could 



grass 
heard 

9 

always 



Total words, 413. 



THE FAIRY'S VISIT 

pp. 48-50 
New words, 17. Known words, 261. 



1 


battles 


an 


oaks 


oak 


glory 


oak 


asks 


die 


awake 


end 


mighty 


an 


5 


sure 


cast 


stood 


anything 


plain 


fire 


pride 


living 


fairy's 


stood 


sad 


trying 


4 


fir 


become 


use 


use 


before 


whatever 


lumber 


3 


visit 


must 


proud 


2 


life 


let 


rich 


awake 


now 


help 


sawed 


suddenly 


moon 


pine 


wish 


slender 


thank 


still 


even 


am 


medals 


become 


besides 


themselves 


pine 


patter 


choose 


don't 


think 


themselves 


raindrops 


different 


think 


don't 


winter 


weak 


tall 


next 


poplar 


poplar 


able 


dainty 


please 


become 


oak 


stand 


silver 


become 


alone 


many 


break 


vain 


gentle 


protect 


against 


won 


taken 


autumn 


storm 


storms 



304 



TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PEIMARY METHODS 



gives 


many 


poplar 


help 


10 


sorry 


help 


must 


pine 


after 


6 


am 


sleep 


king 


other 


fairy 
kind 


7 
great 


better 
8 


9 
friend 


went 
morning 
grow 
want 


fir 


fairy 


night 


could 


pines 


my 


could 


never 


know 


lived 


pine 


going 


fairy 


could 


before 


help 


never 


help 


help 

fairy 

summers 


leaves 


fir 


cut 


cut 


poplar 


too 


fairy 


fir 


must 


voice 


why 


heard 




let 


leaves 


fir 


cannot 




sorry 


first 


can 






QUOTATION 


FROM THE MAGNIFICAT 






p. 50. 






Total words, 


61. 


New words, 


12. 


Known words, 37 


1 

mercy 
generation 


conceit 


2 


4 


6 


mighty 

seat 

exalted 


generations 

hath 

proud 


hath 
5 


hungry 
hath 


hath 


humble 




put 
hath 


7 


shewed 

might 

scattered 


empty 


3 

hath 
filled 


fear 
heart 




MOTHEE NATURE 








pp. 51-53. 






Total words, 


, 154. 


New words, 


6. 


Known words, 123 


1 


shelter 


bad 


stored 


five 


beg 


end 


promise 


grown 


nature 


greater 


forget 


waited 


tall 


happily 


uprooted 


those 


greater 


branches 


unhappy 


friendly 


try 


3 


often 


trust 


raised 


elm 


thought 


strength 


families 


branches 


cheer 


4 


praised 


laughter 


able 


news 


forever 


promptly 


gladly 


nature 


learned 


listen 


wishes 


sawed 


without 


shall 


quickly 


patiently 


lumber 


shall 


nature 


gladly 


2 


firewood 


yourself 


yourself 


disobey 


shelter 


others 


others 


envy 


sad 


built 


proud 


filled 


straight 


close 


games 


vain 


right 


enemies 


nature 


trunk 


light 


anything 



WOED LIST FOR SECOND BOOK 



305 



if 


hard 


feed 


storm 


obeyed 


passed 


door 


these 


8 


pine 


five 


right 


winters 


10 


an 


6 


song 


my 


J.V 


feet 


7 


own 


fir 


played 


themselves 


great 


friend 


show 


enough 


brought 


poplar 


live 


5 


oak 


obey 


obey 


heard 


look 


shall 


work 


always 


saw 


die 


joy 


sun 


tells 


secret 


only 


way 


oak 


pine 


think 


strong 


oak 


voice 


wanted 


die 


shall 


would 


lilies 


things 


shall 


does 


comes 


9 


cut 


life 


secrets 


sunbeams 


poplar 


nature 


put 


nature 


poplar 


songs 


air 


nature 


die 


work 




protect 


storm 


hungry 


things 








QUESTIONS 








p. 53. 






Total words, 


154. 


New words, 


6. 


Known words, 123 


1 


2 


brown 


7 


10 


lose 

evergreen 
cone 
acorn 


neighbors 
most 
carpets 
paint 


promise 
neighbors 
model 
draw 

4 


kind 

secret 

8 
leaves 


leaves 
called 
obey 
ready 


lumberman 


3 


say 




cutting 




picture 








fall 


5 


9 






dream 


leaves 








now 


eat 








an 


going 








POEM 










p. 54. 






Total words, 


68. 


New words, 


10. 


Known words, 41 


1 

written 
wander 


regions 


saying 


6 


9 


unread 
2 


4 
knee 


read 

7 


nature 
night 


untrod 


upon 


still 


thy 




manuscripts 


book 


nurse 


hath 




wandered 


3 


5 






sang 


8 




rhymes 


nurse 


story 


nature 




universe 


thee 


dear 


child 





306 



TEACHEBS MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 





THE CHEISTMAS TEEE 








pp. 55-60. 






Total words, 


706. 


New words, 


52. Known words, 4 


1 


garlands 


3 


awake 


soon 


loaded 


open 


Wood 


sparkled 


gifts 


Christmas 


eyes 


three 


glass 


whispered 


covered 


speak 


think 


merry 


shut 


silver 


sweeter 


story 


jingle 


yourselves 


most 


shadows 


shepherds 


sleigh 


danced 


sleigh 


prayers 


found 


bells 


2 


word 


ask 


star 


frosty 


fell 


Christ 


ran 


later 


moment 


remembered 


covered 


sitting 


rang 


joyous 


Bessie 


seen 


dear 


cousin 


bell 


wide 


5 


-7 


sprang 


sleigh 


Christ 


glee 


yes 


bring 


Christmas 


before 


isn't 


straight 


eyes 


Wood 


many 


beauty 


fine 


talk 


given 


under 


hang 


Christ 


thinking 


sound 


blue 


presents 


isn't 


breath 


soon 


brother 


darkened 


sleeping 


stopped 


filled 


sorry 


journey 


stole 


talking 


eyes 


only 


curtain 


awakened 


shadows 


learned 


themselves 


logs 


wondered 


began 


found 


air 


fireplace 


burning 


brook 


each 


am 


doll 


fire 


keep 


faces 


Christmas 


hair 


golden 


stay 





lights 


skates 


river 


dress 


run 


now 


skating 


chosen 


fire 


branches 


among 


gun 


deep 


sleeping 


covered 


wants 


shoot 


smell 


neck 


Christ 


poor 


visited 


darker 


forget 


anything 


Frank 


sigh 


drowsy 


peeped 


more 


by 


darker 


lights 


waiting 


forest 


8 


watched 


fireplace 


4 


others 


whispering 


sounded 


6 


room 


rushes 


listen 


Christmas 


sunbeam 


older 


well 


ground 


air 


first 


fade 


turn 


snow 


Frank 


Frank 


sorrows 


dying 


Wood 


left 


before 


chasing 


cheek 


tall 


alone 


ever 


stooped 


stairs 


branches 


by 


play 


kissed 


glory 





warm 


many 


mind 


balls 


reached 


it's 


by 


downstairs 


danced 


soon 


now 


Christmas 


gleamed 


share 


asleep 


Christmas 


lights 


multitude 


gifts 


happened 


filled 


now 


twinkled 




light 


quiet 


would 


glistening 




sitting 


forest 





WOBD LIST FOR SECOND BOOK 



307 



9 


joys 


10 


room 


much 


voice 
great 


Mrs. 
first 
Christmas 


great 
tired 


nature 

joys 

never 


night 
bright 


child 




voices 






say 
room 


sun 
bright 


child 
going 


say 
Christmas 

P'T'A'OT 


Frank 




can 

POEM 

p. 60. 


glCYV 




Total words, 


112. 


New words, 


6. 


Known words, 63 


1 

giver 


far 


thee 


6 


kind 


3 


kept 
thou 


gives 

rest 

thee 


heart 
9 


bare 


share 


art 


alms 


gift 


gentle 


give 


holy 


himself 


please 


7 


my 


both 


thank 


keep 




parents 


hungering 
2 


Oh 

near 


5 


let 
dear 


10 


safe 


through 


three 


give 


himself 


well 


thee 


quiet 


my 


feeds 


4 


thou 


8 




Oh 


prayer 




harm 


without 




thy 




high 


neighbor 




let 








QUESTIONS 








p. 61. 






Total words, 


198. 


New words, 


17. 


Known words, 134 


1 


2 


4 


6 


9 


unless 


cross 


Amen 


if 


let 


grain 


follow 


man 


any 


shall 


wheat 


lose 


himself 


life 


sunbeam 


falling 


hast 


find 


Christ 


secret 


itself 


together 


saying 


thou 


save 


remaineth 


woke 


picture 


find 


10 


bringeth 


meaning 


draw 


7 


forth 


doll 


5 


shall 


disciples 


skates 


thee 


save 


deny 


nor 


it 


alone 


secret 


thyself 


3 


man 


8 


Frank's 


fellow 


find 




thine 


Amen 


pictures 


die 




reward 


fruit 


picture 


shall 




colored 


lose 


ground 


secret 




crayons 


sad 








Trinity 











308 



TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 



Total words, 385. 



THE HOLY NIGHT 

pp. 62-63. 
New words, 21. Known words, 262. 



1 


chose 


humble 


humble 


fine 


prophets 


announce 


flocks 


expected 


dressed 


tended 


palace 


clothes 


stood 


riches 


palaces 


behold 


loving 


hills 


unto 


protector 


tended 


clothes 


stable 


same 


suddenly 


Jerusalem 


loving 


glory 


wolves 


pastures 


4 


watching 


watched 


watches 


behold 


holy 


brightness 


round 


waiting 


shone 


Saviour 


obedient 


feared 


city 


angels 


tidings 


wrapped 


coming 


sign 


swaddling 


those 


infant 


laid 


living 


army 


manger 


fine 


praising 


multitude 


near 


peace 


3 


country 


highest 


brook 


2 


coming 


flocks 


those 


bring 


born 


perfect 


born 


rich 


born 


Bethlehem 


wise 


listen 


heavenly 



Joseph 

angels 

those 

houses 

passed 

drink 

holy 

keeping 

saying 

Bethlehem 



an 

pure 

green 

protected 

lions 

men 



son 

enough 

found 

sent 

find 

shepherds 

these 



an 
Christ 



send 

son 

days 

only 

poor 

found 

shepherds 

fear 

find 

9 

would 

heart 

son 

poor 

by 

king 

fear 

before 

10 

would 

gave 

first 

sheep 

eat 



THE ADOEATION OF THE SHEPHERDS 

pp. 64-67 
Total words, 418. New words, 14. Known words, 318. 



1 


lying 


2 


knelt 


suffered 


adored 


whom 


watching 


adoration 


joyfully 


babe 


adoration 


3 


haste 


wonderful 


infant 


perfectly 


understood 


returned 


lying 


message 


manger 


kneeling 


glorifying 


stable 


words 


wrapped 


ass 


hunger 


oxen 


pondering 


swaddling 


road 


bleak 


beasts 


praising 


laid 



WORD LIST FOR SECOND BOOK 



309 



stable 


gift 


seen 


knew 


found 


babe 


often 


6 


pure 


lambs 


lives 


thought 


hearts 


brought 


message 


cold 


Bethlehem 


more 


sent 


wondered 


stable 


Joseph 


8 


dear 


cold 


remembered 


saw 


Christ 


hills 


5 


manger 


hath 


Joseph 


4 


knew 


sent 


10 


back 


more 


Christ 


another 


manger 


promised 


better 


shepherds 


promised 


kept 


kept 


brought 


found 


clothes 


knew 


those 


dear 


by 


manger 


heavenly 


7 


these 


son 


stable 


promised 


9 


send 


breath 


show 


Joseph 


heart 


babe 


visit 


warm 


shepherds 


poor 






QUESTIONS 








p. 67. 






Total words 


, 172. 


New words, 


1. Known words, 


1 

table 


whom 


5 


6 


9 


announce 

chosen 

doing 

hill 

watched 


promise 
born 


keep 
born 


why 
does 


2 
riches 


bring 

gifts 

brook 


promise 

7 


kind 
10 


3 


oxen 


flocks 


born 


why 


wait 
choose 


4 
promised 


draw 

cave 

coming 


green 


Christ 
kind 



Total words, 103. 



POEM, I WONDEE 

p. 68. 
New words, 6. 



watch 
reach 



twinkling 

crisp 

birth 

band 

hoping 

ringing 



listening 
saying 



wonder 

Saviour's 

land 

watching 

drowsy 

boys 

word 



girls 
humbly 
wonder 
glory 

5 

waiting 
wonder 



through 
wonder 



if 

stars 

cool 

song 

keep 

wonder 

8 

air 
if 

knew 
song 



Known words, 63. 
9 

if 

now 

song 

10 

if 
dear 



310 



TEACHEES MANUAL OF PEIMARY METHODS 



THE LAMPS OF HEAVEN 







pp. 73-74. 






Total words 


, 356. 


New words, 


21. Known words 


1 


lamp 


wise 


watched 


saw 


begins 


close 


name 


think 


lamps 


Magi 


moved 


still 


country 


I'll 


spoke 


tried 


obedient 


lived 


Persia 


beauty 


multitude 


Magi 


8 


splendor 


whispering 


Magi 


mountain 


crimson 


strength 


spoke 


6 


star 


sunset 


mountain 


clear 


storm 


listened 


clear 


paint 


white 


green 


rugged 


glistening 


adoration 


running 


thanked 


anger 


move 


breezes 


brook 


blue 


palm 


silent 


lamps 


flocks 


quiet 


ripening 


peace 


4 


thanked 


through 


harvest 


table 


each 


9 


fattening 


valley 


watched 


sky 


flowed 


crimson 


ago 


country 


sleep 


valleys 


sunset 


clouds 


show 


light 


radiant 


3 


most 


again 


knew 


order 


Magi 


learn 


lilies 


landscape 


watch 


river 


7 


stars 


Magi 


burn 


5 


thanked 


sand 


felt 


whole 


10 - 


return 


river 


snow 


through 


2 


high 


thanked 


thanked 


sun 


mountains 


country 


filled 


knew 


wakes 


across 


sky 


men 


stars 


hang 


perfectly 










THE PROMISED STAR 








pp. 75-77. 






Total words, 


444. 


New words, 


25. Known words, 


1 


prophets 


distant 


brow 


bible 


prince 


beams 


Babylon 


book 


Babylon 


appear 


nearer 


sign 


years 


wicked 


appeared 


2 


3 


together 


disorder 


wept 


upon 


laws 


avoid 


Persia 


rich 


seems 


quarreled 


lo 


disobeyed 


city 


far 


war 


west 


killed 


noise 


watching 


stop 


breast 


wicked 


bad 


4 


depths 


above 


unhappy 


able 


peaceful 


shed 


begged 


pray 


safe 


Daniel 


tho* 


evil 


peace 


wise 



WORD LIST FOB SECOND BOOK 



311 



city 


another 


faces 


those 


9 


prayed 


neighbors 


teach 


8 


these 


peace 


looked 


another 


land 


peace 


peace 


filled 


men 


announce 


last 


cloud 


men 


sorry 

quiet 

filled 

promised 

Magi 


suddenly 


new 


babe 


alone 


fell 


land 


looking 


themselves 


sleeping 


cloud 


7 


sorry 


upon 


babe 


promised 


seem 


6 


promised 


hearts 


10 


pray 


anyone 


Magi 




bible 


Magi 


protect 


born 


men 

promised 

Magi 


dreams 


bring 


Magi 


holy 


5 


holy 


holy 


more 


coming 


teach 


lived 


now 
light 


thought 


watched 


rest 


saw 


streets 


waiting 


thou 




sorry 




THE VISIT OF THE MAGI 








pp. 78-81 






Total words, 


538. 


New words, 


22. Known words, 4 


1 


east 


palace 


seen 


asked 


adore 


4 


learned 


Bethlehem 


desert 


troubled 


city 


new 


brought 


written 


across 


announced 


rested 


camels 


prophet 


together 


wise 


land 


ride 


Herod 


stood 


house 


reached 


precious 


appeared 


adoration 


once 


9 


traveled 


also 


adored 


gifts 


weeks 


started 


Jerusalem 


drink 


saw 


sandy 


got 


Herod 


7 


holy 


surely 


gates 


model 


three 


Jews 


falling 


5 


visit 


born 


Herod 


treasures 


white 


many 


hearing 


gold 


announced 


land 


Bethlehem 


chief 


camels 


most 


new 


land 


priests 


expect 


across 


asked 


find 


Juda 


prince 


reached 


Bethlehem 


way 


exceeding 


sand 


asked 


city 


green 


opening 


3 


city 


seen 


10 


offered 


wise 


until 


frankincense 


Jerusalem 


outside 


food 


king 


myrrh 


whose 


suddenly 


reached 


quiet 


carry 


birth 


6 


peace 


holy 


entering 


adore 


show 


born 


2 


Herod's 


visit 


house 


sent 


east 


land 


8 


before 


birth 


appeared 


off 


saw 


journey 


journey 


new 


three 


find 


west 


camels 


thought 


way 


Bethlehem 


desert 


table 


reached 


under 




Jerusalem 


desert 


asked 


look 





312 



TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 



Total words, 440. 



FOOFOO'S MESSAGE 

pp. 86-88. 
New words, 34. 



Known words, 300. 



1 


lazy 


3 


waked 


looking 


slow 


fields 


news 


ran 


Foofoo's 


south 


silent 


journey 


another 


bosom 


2 


soft 


blizzard 


suddenly 


garments 


clouds 


southland 


am 


shaken 


fold 


snowflakes 


K 


fly 


woodlands 


bare 


roots 


u 


once 


forsaken 


harvest 


rose 


worked 


8 


descends 


grey 


warm 


brown 


dull 


floated 


bare 


together 


white 


snowflakes 


snowflakes 


wake 


tried 


coming 


flies 


understood 


getting 


mountains 


beds 


catch 


squirrels 


Foofoo 


journey 


keep 


disappear 


nuts 


got 


branch 


put 


meant 


acorns 


start 


fi 


fly 


storerooms 


lilacs 


laughed 


\j 


9 


gophers 


Foofoo 


blizzard 


snow 




digging 


north 


southland 


covered 


air 


carrying 


war 


hide 


suddenly 


under 


east 


kill 


sparrows 
whispering 


harder 


wing 


piling 


haste 


homes 


warm 


huddled 


start 




side 


asked 


low 


south 


4 


branches 


bluebirds 


rattled 


blizzard 


message 


back 


white 


north 


nice 


brown 


neighbors 


10 


moaned 


grove 


soft 


wings 


touched 


army 


tried 


7 


sleep 


blizzard 


set 


wondered 


afraid 


rays 


sparrows 


snowflakes 


cloud 


white 


willing 


Bob 


hill 


sky 


land 


Bob 




busy 


coming 




bye 




roots 


thought 




foolish 




bushes 


winter 








QUESTIONS 








p. 88. 






Total words, 


142. 


New words, 


5. Known words, 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


charcoal 


gophers 


squirrels 


east 


snowflakes 


mount 


landscape 


dark 


Foofoo 


southland 


flying 


good-bye 


Bob 


sparrows 


happened 


flow'rets 


answ'ring 


grey 


paint 


blizzard 


birdlings 


flow'rets 


paper 


autumn 


asleep 




playmates 


good-bye 
falling 


good-bye 


Foofoo's 
message 



WOBD LIST FOE SECOND BOOK 



313 



good-bye 


brown 


8 


9 


10 


soft 


good-bye 


winter 


play 


blue 


6 


7 


think 


through 




draw 
south 


story 


an 

sky 


sky 






EOCK LEDGE LIGHT 








pp. 90-94. 






Total words, 


681. 


New words, 


51. Known words, 


1 


roaring 


seemed 


dark 


opened 


reminded 


though 


rock 


himself 


ledge 


sailors 


shut 


almost 


almost 


Nellie 


missed 


such 


moon 


6 


else 


chair 


brave 


waters 


light 
often 
lamp 
dark 


island 


hardly 


sailors 


years 


gulls 


steep 


darkness 


Nellie's 


clean 


shinning 


crumbs 


sunset 


oil 


scarcely 


3 


got 


trim 


dried 


darker 


evening 

town 

Nellie 

happened 

bring 


wick 


lost 


rock 


guardian 


climbed 


showed 


ledge 


stairs 


winding 


roar 


built 


high 


stairs 


overtook 


Nellie 


book 


tower 


2 


hidden 


reach 


years 

still 

stairs 

bible 

last 

door 

against 


stormy 


behind 


felt 


sea 


rock 


climbed 


waited 


ships 


ledge 


stairs 


able 


wrecked 


Nellie 


ships 


daughter 


drowned 


listened 


daughter 


fire 


howling 


ships 


forgot 


5 


dashed 


shed 


dinner 


given 
rocks 
tried 


pieces 


oil 


darker 


lamp 


twenty 


wick 


water 


dark 


trimmed 


twenty 


howling 


often 


7 


faithful 


beams 


twenty 


rocks 


light 


darkness 


kissed 


reach 


evening 


watched 


guide 


order 


waited 


upon 


waves 


passing 


howling 


rain 


years 


lamp 


cleaned 


dinner 


kissed 


Nellie's 


back 


row 


staid 


having 


busy 


often 


dinner 


louder 


sea 


prayed 


rocks 


putting 


having 


saved 


safe 


Nellie 


window 


sea 


set 


remembered 


dark 


breaking 


climbed 


4 


stood 


stairs 


foamed 


winding 


family 


door 


something 


carry 


lamp 


bible 


life 


roared 


chair 


evening 


stairs 


kept 


louder 


standing 


began 


waters 


left 



314 



TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 



8 

house 

tiny 

light 

stories 

watched 

lamp 

thought 

hungry 

waves 



Nellie 

back 

suddenly 

often 

too 

dark 

ran 

rocks 

must 



only 

light 

house 

clouds 

keep 

lamp 

am 

alone 

cold 

look 



waves 

thought 

storm 

Nellie 

back 

lived 

better 

10 

brought 
fill 



light 

through 

house 

thanked 

lamp 

thought 

storm 

boat 

way 



QUOTATION AND QUESTIONS 



Total words, 187. 



1 

nations 

seek 

known 

added 

rewarded 



seek 
kingdom 



justice 
window 
island 
gulls 

3 

need 
sand 
fold 



pp. 94-95. 
New words, 5 

4 

unto 

wait 

table 

ship 

sea 



ye 
pray 



feeding 

sea 

paint 

7 

evening 
draw 

8 

stairs 



Known words, 157. 

9 

stories 

think 

dark 

10 

these 
Nellie 
alone 
parents 



THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT 







pp. 96-99. 




Total words, 


429. 


New words, 


8. I 


1 


meant 


order 


wicked 


return 


kill 


word 


Egypt 


guide 


started 


started 


believed 


Egypt 


Egypt 


wrap 


arise 


joyfully 


flight 


whom 


doubt 


traveled 


4 


Egypt 


complain 


bleak 


5 


roads 


buy 


needed 


rough 


3 


camels 


adored 


crossing 


desert 


Herod 


2 


prince 


palace 


desert 


gladly 


behold 


Egypt 


flight 


wicked 


appeared 


able 


offered 


try 


stay 


Jerusalem 


inn 






dream 



Known words, 331. 



journey 

across 

Herod 

adore 

obedient 

asleep 

man 

family 

mountains 

worked 

cold 



WOED LIST FOE SECOND BOOK 



315 



gifts 


food 


wise 


bring 


learned 


peace 


Herod 


showed 


man 


another 


journey 


wise 


cold 


left 


family 


Herod 


hard 


journey 



hard 
until 
once 
country 

9 

bed 

watched 
own 
rest 



an 

fly 

wait 

winter 

reached 

food 

new 

rocks 



10 

sleep 

asked 

back 

Joseph 

dark 



Total words, 315. 



EX ORE INFANTIUM 

pp. 99-100. 
New words, 14. Known words, 235. 



1 


waking 


fold 


right 


thy 


kneel 


kissed 





show 


wast 


unless 


feels 


7 


prayer 


shy 


used 


small 


bring 


didst 


fair 


talk 


wings 


10 


distress 


young 


walk 


pray 


canst 


tongue 


listen 


prayer 


think 


forgotten 


3 


5 


8 


sky 


couldst 


look 


tongue 


small 


cry 


thou 


air 


smile 


join 


girls 


wonder 


thou 


changed 


times 


tall 


any 


play 


since 


being 


seem 


thee 


bed 


marbles 


kiss 


clothes 


prayer 


thee 


toys 


feel 


talk 


hear 


thy 


young 


4 


art 


pray 


prayer 


2 


dress 


6 


9 




feel 


boys 


ask 


once 




times 


too 


pray 


thou 




should 


join 


prayer 


thee 





THE HOLY INNOCENTS 

pp. 101-105. 



Total words. 


, 865. 


New words, 


51. Known words 


1 


indoors 


hated 


spears 


legs 


upper 


body 


imps 


round 


innocents 


beard 


drove 


gathered 


belly 


whistled 


trembling 


cried 


mocked 


ugly 


Zion 


groaned 


marble 


glutton 


grinned 


shivered 


minutes 


money 


short 


wine 


hurried 


cruel 


smiled 


crooked 


skin 



316 



TEACHERS MANUAL. OF PRIMARY METHODS 



tightly 


enemies 


inn 


kill 





bones 


mock 


draw 


imps 


given 


nose 


anger 


innocents 


mock 


8 


skinny 


struck 


through 


order 


cruelty 


gone 


soldiers 


model 


door 


rule 


floor 


4 


stay 


whole 


pride 


hundred 


wake 


palace 


trembles 


innocents 


lay 


lives 


soldiers 


mastered 


ass 


proud 


fold 


family 


staff 


rode 


behind 


6 


man 


afterwards 


strange 


rich 





prize 


short 


ordered 


Jerusalem 


9 


martyrs 


3 


soldiers 


palace 


bled 


kill 


looked 


Herod's 


served 


north 


pain 


upon 


man 


turned 


pain 


black 


saying 


face 


lest 


disobeyed 


besides 


soldier 


more 


weep 


streets 


groaned 


opened 


country 


2 


buy 


street 


kill 


died 


swords 


leave 


wicked 


left 


afternoon 


seven 


built 


black 


journey 


mount 


black 


disobeyed 


Egypt 


family 


streets 


imps 


killed 


names 


soldiers 


few 


jumped 


lives 


imps 


10 


soldiers 


groan 


seven 


streets 


lay 


shut 


imps 


eyes 


winter 


walked 


follow 


mocked 


7 


Herod 


imps 


window 


try 


feared 


groaned 


prophets 


feel 


cold 


lived 


mouth 


followed 


5 


snow 


let 


envy's 


threw 


palace 


man 


stretched 


killed 


palace 


face 


face 


touched 


Jews 


wicked 


right 


own 


finger 


greater 


soldiers 


drink 


once 


Jews 


struck 


black 


adore 


under 


trembled 


golden 


listen 


soldiers 


soldiers 


hardly 


door 


got 


years 


keep 


passing 


suffered 


streets 


two 


country 


shivered 


mocked 


whom 


Egypt 


more 



Total words, 974. 



SILVER BROOK 

pp. 110-116. 
New words, 61. 



Known words, 700. 



messenger 

loiter 

reverie 

bids 

farewell 



stream 

mile 

rolled 

rabbit 

bank 

hurry 

fool 



fast 

ice 

freedom 

crystals 

yesterday 

free 

foot 



graceful 

ferns 

waved 

plumes 

willows 

dipped 

murmured 



gurgled 

softly 

deer 

thirsty 

further 

dug 

past 



WOED LIST FOE SECOND BOOK 



317 



meadow 


bank 


4 


turning 


silver 


glided 


willow 


silver 


mill 


snow 


merrily 


understand 


lose 


rain 


drink 


drank 


nodded 


sunshine 


right 


sat 


meadow 


far 


rivers 


stay 


leaned 


smooth 


laughed 


laughed 


years 


cane 


mill 


squirrel 


join 


cool 


dam 


pond 


been 


6 


looked 


wheel 


wheel 


wide 


caves 


flour 


flour 


north 


sea 


tried 


pond 


runs 


move 


silver 


does 


sailed 


free 


clear 


cave 


gift 


poured 


animals 


stop 


lakes 


learned 


thanks 


deer 


valley 


set 


9 


grinds 


fern 


golden 


waters 


spun 


dance 


sand 


stay 


ran 


labored 


palms 


sang 


got 


brook 


alas 


kindness 


sparkling 


sunshine 


mountain 


fronds 


beat 


water 


played 


silver 


rejoice 


3 


yes 


river 


must 


pebbles 


gladly 


squirrel 


any 


leaped 


danced 


bread 


shade 


stay 


mill 


sang 


turns 


dew 


make 


surface 


trying 


passes 


laugh 


hearts 


swim 


such 


Brookville 


rain 


draw 


wading 


stop 


rabbit 


carried 


drink 


vesture 


yes 


mill 


7 


hath 


upturn 


rabbit 


rain 


10 


2 


caught 


spread 


brook 


valley 


tho' 


mountain 


am 


lest 


sparkling 


vain 


running 


song 


slow 


rolled 


ocean 


cave 


brook 


merry 


path 


5 


silver 


waves 


along 


orchard 


south 


sunbeams 


rabbit 


ocean 


make 


good-bye 


clouds 


stop 


hot 


sets 


side 


mountains 


hurry 


passing 


silver 


branches 


rock 


ice 


listening 


played 


across 


reached 


ocean 


young 


squirrel 


tried 


ran 


roll 


flowed 


ships 


stay 


silver 


spread 


meadow 


fly 


strong 


must 


coaxed 


spread 


leave 


sunshine 


drink 


turned 


mill 


fell 


opened 


stay 


above 


turned 


singing 


still 


too 


log 


Brookville 


fill 


set 


rest 


path 


ice 


shade 


again 


lilies 


flowed 


pond 


need 


soon 


draw 


rejoicing 


wheel 


gladly 


8 




murmuring 


fern 


golden 




pebbles 


beat 


clear 


sing 




bent 


log 


ocean 


mountains 




thirsty 


hurry 


stop 


brook 




stooped 


turn 


shadow 


wings 





318 



TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 



GEOBGE WASHINGTON 



Total words, 682. 



pp. 116-120. 
New words, 48. 



George 
Washington 
Virginia 
pony- 
hero 
school 
romped 
waded 
swimming 
rippling 
warship 
captain 
trusted 
truth 
cheerfully 
manly 
fourteen 
Vernon 
pirate 
packed 
trunk 
board 
allow 

disappointed 
cheery 
needy 
weary 
tasks 
burdens 
heavy 
deem 
wrong 
gain 



fresh 

courage 

rise 

proudly 

duty 

honor 

mayest 

schoolmates 

Potomac 

farm 

shallow 

Betty 

studied 

greeting 

bounty 



George 

Washington 

past 

farm 

shore 

fight 

lessons 

fellow 

older 

during 

battles 

captain 

patiently 

became 

remember 

bravely 

trust 



visited 

Vernon 

pony 

3 

free 

banks 

yellow 

lay 

lapping 

George 

listened 

murmur 

sailor 

Washington 

playmates 

mount 

captain 

few 

trunk 



fields 

flowed 

hills 

hurry 

George 

sailors 

Washington 

share 

sometimes 

listened 

thank 

mount 



wide 

fishes 

sand 

proud 

George 

pass 

sailor 

news 

listened 

Washington 

become 

6 

soft 

wide 

wish 

ships 

George 

sailor 

holds 

seem 

Washington 

paint 

ocean 

7 

named 

river 

waves 

ocean 

sea 

ships 

George 



Known words, 530. 

welcome 

wide 

its 

8 

sister 
brothers 



river 

good-bye 

strong 

visit 

George 

opening 

ship 

9 

grass 

brother 

good-bye 

years 

visit 

ship 

George 

door 

right 

10 

warm 

watched 

ship 

bring 

George 

many 

new 



Total words, 415. 



THE EETURN FROM EGYPT 

pp. 121-123. 
New words, 8. Known words, 348. 



1 


command 


shop 


% 


carpenter 


relatives 


carpenter 


peaceful 


dead 


waxed 




months 


earthly 


protection 


wisdom 




might 


weeks 



WORD LIST FOR SECOND BOOK 



319 



wonderful 

3 

patiently 
strange 
return 
should 



return 

Nazareth 

grace 

perfectly 

done 

buy 



far 

without 

appeared 

return . 

Nazareth 

taught 

small 

valley 

6 

clothes 
passed 
news 



appeared 
safe 
taught 
heavenly 

7 

worked 

wicked 

kill 

Jerusalem 

taught 

bible 

heavenly 

read 



Egypt 


Egypt 


set 


strong 


city 


pray 


again 


10 


wicked 


those 


work 


read 


food 


enough 


journey 


still 


family 


heavenly 


only 




strong 



THE FINDING IN THE TEMPLE 

pp. 123-126. 
Total words, 456. New words, 16. Known words, 374. 



Pasch 

freed 

sought 

crowds 

doctors 

asking 

showing 

meaning 

astonished 

answers 

sought 

sorrowing 

business 

eighteen 

advanced 

explaining 

2 

temple 
feast 



twelve 

missed 

cousins 

questions 

wisdom 

priests 

business 

age 

sought 

reward 



temple 

staid 

during 

feast 

twelve 

traveled 

hast 

priests 

earthly 



wisdom 

seek 

meant 



temple 

feast 

listening 

teaching 

prophets 

murmuring 

hid 

Oh 



seven 

temple 

done 

behold 

words 

grace 



self 
wondered 

6 

Nazareth 
frightened 
wondered 
temple 

7 

last 
wished 
temple 
Nazareth 

8 

Jerusalem 

seen 

bible 

kept 

among 



set 

city 

hard 

learned 

wise 

those 

Jerusalem 

10 

year 

Egypt 

Jerusalem 

learned 

left 

three 



Total words, 515. 



1 
Master 



thirty 

wedding 

Cana 



THE MASTER 

pp. 127-130. 
New words, 20. 



guests 

commanded 

calm 



sight 

deaf 

ruler 



Known words, 430. 

great 

maiden 

remain 



320 



TEACHERS MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 



miracles 


weeping 


4 


perfectly 


8 


miracle 

spinning 

bench 

tools 

Jairus 

health 


remind 

Pasch 

lost 

answer 

healing 

3 


grown 

earthly 

wine 

multitude 

falling 

lay 


five 

daughter 

even 

6 

turned 


worked 

life 

named 

Nazareth 

teach 

temple 


2 


carpenter 


followed 
dead 


fishes 
even 


9 


shop 


age 


crowd 


daughter 


heavenly 


wine 


wine 

loaves 

dead 

crowd 

Jairus 

used 


wheel 


whom 


hungry 


changed 


carpenter 


began 


peace 


command 

blind 

hearing 


fed 
5 


fold 

7 


still 

put 

temple 


dead 




living 


two 


10 


Jairus 




began 


upon 


crowd 




teach 


daughter 


face 




THE CREATION - 








pp. 135-137. 




Total words, 


, 563. 


New words, 


26. Known words, 


1 

expulsion 
creation 


image 


flying 


fruit 


7 


seventh 

2 


3 

loveth 


5 

darkness 


covered 

appeared 

live3 

behold 

paint 

fishes 


prayeth 


both 


nothing 


moon 


loveth 


loveth 


darkness 


fruit 


shape 


beginning 


gathered 


beasts 


divided 


empty 


forth 


nor 


created 


forth 


beasts 


forth 


8 


creatures 


seeds 


creeping 


seventh 


seas 


whales 


creeping 


remember 


field 


likeness 


created 


gates 


6 


upon 
daughter 


Sabbath 


creature 


seventh 


six 


rule 


created 


together 


ocean 
paint 


shalt 


plant 


rule 


done 


labor 


seventh 


animals 


lives 


9 


nor 


Sabbath 


nor 


himself 


life 


servant 


shalt 


4 


beast 


maid 


nor 


nor 


sea 


within 


servant 


darkness 


moon 


ocean 


therefore 


six 


beasts 


shadow 


10 


sanctified 


else 


nor 


model 




Sunday 


Sunday 


stranger 


fruit 




Adam 


shining 


seventh 


small 




dry 


whale 


forth 






plants 


charcoal 


grey 







WOED LIST FOR SECOND BOOK 



321 



THE GARDEN OF EDEN 







pp. 138-140. 




Total words 


, 599. 


New words, 


17. 


Known words 


1 


2 


4 


kissed 
Eden 


fishes 
Adam 


Eden 


Eden 


rule 


glory 


covered 


fragrance 


mind 


Adam 






language 


Eve 


Eden 


6 


9 


wife 


dig 


spoke 


flowed 


among 


Eve 


sight 


animals 


Adam 


Adam 


wears 


Adam 


shines 


sound 


fishes 


untold 


3 


shut 


animals 


names 


slides 




kisses' 


rr 


across 


thrills 


Adam 


creatures 


7 




lids 


Eden 


lonely 


moon 


10 


pressure 


also 


5 


fruit 


wise 


guesser 


thankful 




Adam 


grass 


streams 


understand 


Adam 


himself 


ocean 


mines 


lonely 


moved 


fold 


Adam 


embrace 


creature 


sparkling 


learn 


die 


tender 


above 


flowed 


model 


names 


tame 


waking 


animals 




seas 




half 


high 


8 






Eve 


though 


moon 






gold 


feel 


across 





THE FLAMING SWORD 







pp. 141-148 






Total words, 


, 1316. 


New words, 


52. Known words, 1089. 


1 


forbade 


Israel 


commandment drove 


tempted 


Siani 


forbids 


allowed 


flaming 


cursed 


wrote 


lies 


flew 


dewdrop 


crawl 


second 


2 


quarreled 


wilt 


choke 


third 


law 


banishment 


thorns 


fourth 


fallen 


build 


nay 


bitter 


fifth 


drop 


obeying 


anon 


soul 


sixth 


dust 


longer 


lowlier 


disobedience 


ninth 


dewdrop 


pity 


uplifted 


original 


tenth 


talked 


Moses 


native 


sin 


belongs 


forbidden 


Israel 


middle 


obedient 


innocence 


serpent 


commandment 


wedded 


pity 


serpent 


ate 


stone 


displease 


Paradise 


forbidden 


soul 


ten 


ate 


longer 


buried 


angry 


honor 


myself 


miserable 


driven 


sorrow 


steal 


eaten 


Moses 


ten 


flaming 


eighth 



322 



TEACHEES MANUAL OF PKIMAEY METHODS 



disobedience 


Sabbath 


disobeyed 


mount 


commandment 


lead 


quarreling 


hid 


return 


9 


happen 


fighting 


been 


7 




sin 


pure 


pain 




again 


raise 


guide 


sword 


animals 


often 


actions 


ate 


suffered 


others 


fruit 


Sinai 


happen 


rules 


happened 


opened 


3 


disobedience 


flows 


seem 


Eve 


ten 


law 


rain 


cold 


remain 


Israel 


unhappy 


Eve 


tried 


command 


4 


mount 


eyes 


disobeyed 


touched 


tables 


frightened 


another 


evil 


sword 


commandment disobeyed 


wicked 


forbidden 


touched 


vain 


law 


given 


seemed 


hast 


forbidden 


commandment bible 


begged 


bank 


serpent 


words 


commandment 


mind 


serpent 


prophets 


neighbors 


laws 


shivered 


suffer 


6 


forbidden 


happened 


meet 


thistles 


whom 


10 


serpent 


law 


Eden 


Eden 


charge 


commandment Eve 


8 


hard 


bleak 


remember 


art 


fruit 


naming 


forbidden 


ground 


fruit 


Eve 


became 


became 


disobeyed 


given 


life 


wild 


command 


living 


shade 


again 


angry 


ten 


sword 


Eve 


anything 


unhappy 


Moses 


move 


disobey 


across 


law 


unhappy 


law 


kill 


cold 


understood 


5 


desert 


last 


disobeyed 


Moses 


words 


law 


commandment 


commandment Eve 


commandment adore 




written 


sitting 


seventh 


happened 




shalt 


besides 


forbidden 


south 





THE WATER LILY AND THE MINNOW 

pp. 153-158. 
Total words, 1042. New words, 49. Known words, 811. 



1 


thrilled 


swam 


broke 


sunrise 


vision 


backed 


preen 


noticed 


transfiguration supreme 


stared 


eastern 


pay 


minnow 


fragile 


guess 


homely 


2 


fragrant 


roof 


top 


unfolded 


gnarled 


moss 


fanned 


whitest 


slender 


unlovely 


calmly 


wagged 


ladder 


rippling 


languid 


thick 


discouraged 


sod 


shoot 


pale 


mud 


numb 


whence 


vision 


bloom 


froze 


July 


dewy 


shallow 


sense 


perch 


faded 


describe 


bottom 


frail 


attention 


rustling 


write 


glass 



WORD LIST FOE SECOND BOOK 



323 



buried 


minnow 


ugly 


talk 


minnow 


mud 


surprised 


tail 


minnow 


began 


perch 


else 


surprised 


Blizzard 


9 


minnow 


ugly 


above 


busy 


sweetly 


floating 


floating 


fields 


cool 


stared 


answered 


creeping 


touched 


covered 


ugly 


gone 


lifted 


table 


south 


rudeness 


cheer 


rose 


7 


side 


body 


stole 


climb 


black 


floated 


touched 


pond 


black 


last 


believe 


rippling 


beauty 


mill 


snow 


swam 


awoke 


5 


pond 


soon 


later 


feathers 


hurt 


pond 


question 


crimson 


root 


wondered 


two 


coldest 


joyous 


pond 


move 


minnow 


driven 


beam 


bank 


minnow 


upon 


surface 


smiled 


north 


news 


mill 


courage 


mill 


ice 


off 


plant 


push 


surface 


lay 


dreamed 


10 


top 


perch 


bottom 


turned 


attention 


landscape 


yes 


brown 


green 


breeze 


bottom 


ago 


behold 


peace 


whispered 


question 


minnow 


each 


covered 


smiles 


4 


breezes 


sand 


fish 


broke 


sometimes 


root 


among 


fairest 


gold 


cheered 


began 


black 


thanks 


breezes 


gentle 


8 


often 


glide 


meadow 


sleeping 


last 


paid 


fall 


floated 


soon 


talk 


shook 


ice 


meadow 


black 


pond 


3 


watch 


6 


root's 


pretty 


bottom 


side 


snow 


shoot 


neck 


forth 


pond 


visited 


beauty 


being 


root 


seem 


soon 


blossom 


close 


dream 


others 


minnow 


dainty 


touched 


mill 


appeared 




pebbles 


follow 


golden 


wish 




deep 


understand 


sand 


model 




weeds 


minnow's 


pond 


sunshine 





Total words, 286 



THE WAY TO HEAVEN 

pp. 159-160. 
New words, 10. Known words, 232. 



1 


Samaritan 


2 


road 


3 


bound 


manner 


rightly 


wounds 


thirty 


Samaritan 


soul 


Jericho 


keeper 


gain 


pay 


strength 


wounded 


whatsoever 


thyself 


mercy 


same 


Levite 


likewise 


robbers 




pity 



324 



TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PBIMAEY METHODS 



paid 


next 


robbers 


Saviour 


showed 


5 


4 


answered 


dead 


answered 


near 


mind 


being 


half 


inn 


priest 




inn 





fell 

near 

answered 



beast 

return 

fell 



clothes 

8 

neighbor 
moved 



began 
whole 
neighbor 



10 

bible 
whole 
put 
neighbor 



THE FOEGIVENESS OF SIN 



Total words, 269. 

1 drank 

doctor 



forgiveness 

committed 

commit 

penance 

drew 

receives 

doth 

ninety 

shoulders 



forgiveness 
sinners 



penance 

enter 

doth 

rejoicing 

ninety-nine 



sin 

sinners 

doctor 

unless 

hundred 

lost 



pp. 160-162. 
New words, 9. 



doth 

rejoice 

penance 

4 

sin 

ate 

well 

sinners 

lost 

doth 

penance 

5 

sin 



Known words, 213. 

Saviour desert 

surprise even 

sinners sinner 

lose need 



Saviour 

need 

sins 

leave 

lay 

sinners 

7 

near 



8 

which 

9 

themselves 
until 

10 

hath 

an 

upon 



prodigal 

certain 

owned 

wasted 

spent 

companions 

famine 

farmer 

pigs 

hired 

sinned 



THE PEODIGAL SON 

pp. 162-164. 



Total words, 368. 



worthy 

yet 

robe 

shoes 

hither 

fatted 

calf 

hunger 



divided 

money 

farmer 



New words, 19. 

pigs 

hired 

rising 

prodigal 

sinned 

worthy 

quickly 

ring 

3 

forgive 
money 
mighty 



Known words, 301. 

servants bread 

dying servants 

finger neck 

merry lost 

4 6 

younger gladly 

servants far 

pity kissed 

5 servants 
dead 

understand 
share 



WORD LIST FOR SECOND BOOK 



325 



Saviour 

sins 

against 



forth 


off 


9. 


10 


8 


running 

fell 

against 


even 


two 


sin 
himself 


moved 


began 

hungry 

kill 



THE GOOD SHEPHERD 



Total words, 250. 



hireling 

wolf 

flies 

catches 

scatters 

mine 

confession 

confessor 

dramatize 



2 

wolf 

mine 

write 



pp. 164-166. 
New words, 9. 



whose 

Samaritan 

prodigal 



Samaritan 
forgiveness 
prodigal 
farm 



penance 
prodigal 
Samaritan 



lost 
prodigal 



Known words, 210. 



gives 

lay 

lost 

table 

prodigal 

knows 



Saviour 
sinners 
whom 
sand 



sins 
does 
whom 
sinner 

10 

whom 
paint 



326 



TEACHERS MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 




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INDEX 



Abraham, call of, 154; faith of, 

154; obedience of, 157. 
Action drills, 35. 
Action games, 35. 
Action work, 129. 
Adjustment, method of, 25; to 

school environment, 22; to 

physical environment, 33. 
Adult confirmation of child's 

thought, 139, 140. 
Aesthetic development, 112, 113, 

150, 151; in second grade, 122; 

in third grade, 164. 
Afternoon program, 64. 
Agnes, St., 181. 

Aim in primary reading, 239, 240. 
Aim in reading, 220. 
Alphabet method, 224. 
Annunciation, 132. 
Answers, finding the, 238, 239. 
Apostles Creed, the, 155. 
Ark, the, 153. 
Assimilation, 71. 
Augustine, St., 156. 
Authority in the school, 30. 
Authority, obedience to, 54. 

B 

Beginnings, 21. 

Ben Hur, 172. 

Bible History, and Religion, Third 
Book, 150. 

Bird thoughts, 169. 

Birthday, May's, 130. 

Birthdays, celebration of, 130. 

Blackboard and chart, use of, 26. 

Blessed Virgin, dedication of child- 
ren to, 130, 131. 

Boarding schools for boys, 175. 

Building a nest, 206. 

Bunch of Roses, A, 131. 

Busy work, 36. 

Butterfly, the, 127. 

C 

Camel, the, 171. 



Capital sins, 142. 
Catacombs, the, 162. 
Catechism, memorizing the, 187. 
Catholic Education Series, 144. 
Chapter, four parts of, 113. 
Charity, 153. 

Chart and blackboard, use of, 26. 
Child his own dramatist, 210. 
Child thoughts and childish 

thoughts, 238. 
Children, classifying as visuali- 

zers, 255. 
Children from preliminary grade, 

24. 
Children without previous school 

experience, 24. 
Christ and the shepherd idea, 190. 
Christians, the first, 162. 
Christian slave, the, 180. 
Christmas tree, the, 138. 
Church, the, 151, 152; founding of, 

155. 
Comparative literature, 178. 
Concert recitation, 63. 
Conscience, 166. 
Context Method, 227, 228, 230, 244, 

254; in primary books, 82, 83; 

word getting, 108, 109. 
Co-operate, teaching the children 

to, 37. 
Correcting errors, 44. 
Correlation, 42, 93, 196, 197; of 

grade books, 148, 149; the 

principle of, 95. 
Courage, 173. 
Coward and his Wife, the, 166, 

214. 
Creation, the, 117; story of, 145. 
Curriculum, correlation in the, 96. 

D 

Danger, protection from, 120. 
Daniel in the Lions' den, 180. 
David, King, 131. 
Daughter of Jairus, 145. 
Defects in current primary books, 
185. 



332 



TEACHERS MANUAL OF PEIMAEY METHODS 



Defects, remedying, 83. 
Desert, meeting in the, 172. 
Developmental process, stages in, 

92. 
Development, final stage of, 196; 

first phase of, 195; of details, 

192. 
Disobedience of our First Parents, 

143. 
Divine Providence, 177. 
Divine Sonship, 117. 
Domestic study, 115, 130. 
Dopp readers, 84. 
Dramatization, 129. 
Dramatizing, 204. 
Drawing, and penmanship, 75. 
Drawing, beginnings of, 61, 62. 
Dream and the fairy tale, the, 136. 



E 



Education and erudition, 182. 
Egyptian Captivity, 155. 
Elementary education, cause of 

failure in, 123. 
Emotional culture, 206. 
Errors, correcting, 44. 
Eskimo Stories, 85. 
Expulsion from Paradise, 146. 



F 



Fairy tales, function of, 202; their 
use and abuse, 135. 

Fairy's visit, the, 134. 

Faith, 153. 

Fall of our First Parents, in litera- 
ture, 166, 167. 

Finding in the Temple, 144. 

First Book, name of, 93, 94; the 
child's, 49; thought material in, 
112, 113. 

First day in school, 51. 

First day, program for, 52. 

First grade, preparation for, 22; 
sense training in, 68; stories 
for, 60; thought material for, 
49, 50. 

Flaming sword, the, 146. 

Flight into Egypt, the, 142. 

Flood, the, 153. 



Flowers, the, Stevenson, 133. 
Foofoo's message, 141. 
Forgiveness of sin, 147. 
Formal gymnastics, 139. 
For the world is full of roses, 127. 
Fruit lesson, 70; results of, 72. 
Fundamental truths, 89. 



G 



Garden of Eden, 145. 

Generosity, the teaching of, 160, 

161. 
George Washington's boyhood, 144. 
Germinal thoughts, 195. 
Germinal truths, 87, 110. 
Gifts, 28, 29. 
God and neighbor, 179. 
God with us, 159. 
God's law is for our good, 141. 
Good-bye song, 63. 
Good Samaritan, the, 147. 
Good Shepherd, the, 133, 147. 
Greeting game, 56. 



H 



Health, securing the child's, 34. 
Heredity, 197. 
Histological analogy, 89. 
Holy Eucharist, 158. 
Holy Innocents, 142. 
Holy Night, the, 139. 
Home conditions, changed, 217. 
Home to school, 27. 
Home training, 175. 
Hope, 153. 

Hughes, Bishop, and Catholic edu- 
cation, 99. 



I Know Blue Modest Violets, 127. 
Imagination, 72; cultivation of, 59, 

60. 
Imitating public schools, 100. 
Imitation, 59; models for, 121. 
Imitative instinct, utilization of, 

26. 
Immediate and ultimate results, 

233, 234. 



INDFX 



333 



Inhibition, 194. 
Instinctive tendencies, 104. 
Instincts, five fundamental, 104, 

105; transforming of, 105. 
Instrumentalities of thought, 85, 

86. 
Introduction by Principal, 53. 
It is Love, 118. 



Jerome, Jerome K., 174. 
Jesus, the child's model, 117. 
Jesus prays in the Garden, 158. 
Joseph, story of, 154, 155. 
Joyousness, 39. 
June Time, 208. 



K 



Kindergarten, advantages of, 23; 

children from, 23; private, 23, 

24, 56. 
Knowledge vs. Power, 182, 183. 



Lamb of God, 157. 

Lamps of Heaven, the, 139. 

Language and Religion, Second 

Book, 151. 
Language and thought, 182. 
Law, obedience to, aim of Third 

Book, 123. 
Lead, Kindly Light, 173. 
Lesson, Gospel, and Collect, 151. 
Lessons for life, 168. 
Life, preparation for, 174. 
Lilies, parable of, the, 116. 
Literature, developing interest in, 

236; teaching the child, 168, 169. 
Little children, 118. 
Little Fir's Dream, 134. 
Little hero of Haarlem, 176. 
Liturgical hymns, 159. 
Liturgy, method of, 151, 152. 
Loaves and Fishes, 159. 
Love between teacher and child, 

30. 
Love, dependence upon parental, 

114. 



M 



Magi, the, 140, 141. 

Magic Ring, the, 170. 

Man to God, relationship of, 149. 

Mary's childhood, 132. 

Mary's parents, 132. 

Materialism in primary books, 84. 

Meeting in the desert, 172. 

Memorizing forms, 186. 

Memorizing the catechism, 187. 

Memorizing thought, 188. 

Memory, 185. 

Mental continuity, 33. 

Messmer, Archbishop, 156. 

Method of thought development, 

185; unity of, 81. 
Milkweed lesson, 68. 
Mother idea, 190. 
Mother Nature, 137. 
Moses in the bulrushes, 177. 
Motor expression, 38. 
Motor tendencies, 193. 
Mountain to the sea, the, 144. 
Mount Sinai, 160. 
Music in the first grade, 112, 113. 
Mystery of Mysteries, 159. 



N 



Nativity, feast of, 130, 131. 
Nature, love of, 117. 
Nature study, 113. 
Nature the old nurse, 137. 
Negative method, dangers of, 44. 
New Commandment, the, 158. 
Nutrition, instinct of, 119. 



O 



Obedience, filial, 131; first end of, 
134; perfect, 143; prompt, 142; 
the second end of, 139; to au- 
thority, 54. 

Opposites, blending of, 102, 103. 

Oral reading, essential elements 
in, 242. 

Oral work, 201. 

Original sin, 145. 

Owl and the Pussy Cat, the, 173. 



334 



TEACHEES MANUAL OF PRIMARY METHODS 



Pancratius, St., 181. 

Pange Lingua, 159. 

Parable, basis of lessons, 150. 

Parker, Col., 244. 

Paschal Lamb, 157. 

Patriotism, development of, 176. 

Pea Blossom, the, 170. 

Penmanship and drawing, 95. 

Peter, St., 180. 

Phantoms, 127. 

Phonic methods, 224, 225. 

Phonics, abuse of, 81, 82. 

Physical culture, 205. 

Physical environment, adaptation 
to, 33. 

Places, assignment of, 57. 

Play and work, 202. 

Play, function of, 37. 

Positive and negative methods, 44. 

Prayer, 64; the answer to, 154. 

Preliminary grade, children from, 
24. 

Preliminary school period, 26. 

Preparation for first grade, 22. 

Primary methods and thought get- 
ting, 184. 

Primary reading, aim in, 239, 240. 

Primary reading and arrested de- 
velopment, 232. 

Primary reading, defective methods 
of teaching, 216. 

Primary room, activity in, 34, 35. 

Primary teacher, qualifications of, 
218. 

Primary text-books, Catholic Edu- 
cation Series, 110. 

Primary text-books, functions of, 
84. 

Prince Darling, 170. 

Principal, Introduction by, 53. 

Principle in thought sequence, 91. 

Private worship, 134. 

Prodigal Son, 147. 

Promised star, the, 140. 

Psychology of spelling, 245, 246. 

Public worship, 139. 



Q 



Queen Esther, 179. 



Queen of the Butterflies, 126. 
Questions, art of asking, 239. 
Questions, functions of, 138. 

R 

Rainbow, the, 153. 

Raven builds her nest, the, 159. 

Readers, an anachronism, 219. 

Reading and mental development, 
237. 

Reading and writing, beginnings 
of, 67. 

Reading and supplementary, 203. 

Redemption, 146. 

Red Sea, across the, 160. 

Religion as a separate branch, 102. 

Religion excluded, 98. 

Religion, First Book, 112. 

Religion in curriculum, 101. 

Religion in the school, 31. 

Religion, Second Book, 122. 

Religion, segregated, 100. 

Religion, Third Book, 148. 

Religion, Third Book as Bible His- 
tory, 150. 

Religious instruction in first and 
second grades, 103. 

Religious lesson, 113, 115. 

Remedy, 120. 

Reparation, 185. 

Rescue, the, 209. 

Retardation, cause of, 25. 

Return from Egypt, 144. 

Reward of obedience, 124. 

Rhythmic work, 35, 75, 76. 

Rock Ledge Light, 141. 



Sacrifice, 138, 156. 

Sacrifices, early, 156. 

Sacrifices in the Tabernacle, 160. 

Sebastian, St., 181. 

School environment, adjustment 

of the child to, 22. 
School promotions, 29. 
Science and primary methods, 231. 
Script to print, 48. 
Scripture texts to be memorized, 

137. 
Seat work, 61. 
Secret, A, 117. 



INDEX 



335 



Sense training, 70; in first grade, 

68. 
Sensory motor drills, 74. 
Sensory motor training, 34. 
Shepherd idea, 199; and Christ, 

190. 
Seven black imps, 142. 
Silent reading, 142. 
Silver Brook, 143, 211. 
Sin, idea of, 193. 
Sleeping game and surprise, 60. 
Social activity, 55. 
Social inheritance, the five-fold, 

105, 107. 
Social study, 113. 
Songs in second grade, 123. 
Spell, teaching the child to, 245. 
Spelling and pronunciation, 158. 
Spelling and reading, 149, 150. 
Spelling book, 249, 259. 
Spelling drills, 256. 
Spelling in the primary grades, 

252. 
Spelling, oral method of, 246. 
Spelling, psychology of, 245, 246. 
Spirago method, 156. 
Spoken vocabulary, enlarging of, 

45. 
Storm at sea, 209. 
Story telling, 41. 
Suitable thought material, 31. 
Supplementary reading, 203. 
Supplementary work, 198. 
Sweet Lesson, A, 118. 



Tabernacle, sacrifices in, 60. 

Tabernacle, the building of the, 
160. 

Tantalus, the story of, 166. 

Teacher and text-book, 78, 188, 201. 

Teacher of first grade work, 21. 

Teleology and mental develop- 
ment, 95. 

Temple, the, 161. 

Text-book and teacher, 78. 

Text-book, author of, 200. 

Text-book, correct use of, 80. 

Text-book, function of primary, 84. 

Text-book, knowledge of the, 80. 

Text-book, preparing, 243. 



Text-book, qualities of, 199. 

Text-book, selection of, 78, 80. 

Text-book, symmetry in, 202. 

Thanks, to whom shall we give, 
171. 

Third Commandment, 145. 

Third Reader, aesthetic develop- 
ment in, 164. 

Third Reader, aim of, 163. 

Third Reader, and beginnings of 
literature, 164. 

Third Reader, name of, 165. 

Third Reader, scope of, 165. 

Third Reader, unity in, 164. 

Thought and language, 182. 

Thought and motor expression, 58, 
59. 

Thought and the word, 47, 82. 

Thought development, 188. 

Thought development and thought 
accumulation, 182. 

Thought development, method of, 
185. 

Thought forms, 86. 

Thought getting power, 183. 

Thought material, 84. 

Thought material, aim in selec- 
tion of, 199. 

Thought material, of First Book, 
112, 113. 

Thought memorizing, 188. 

Thought sequence, 87. 

Thoughts for Us, 153. 

Three Little Milkweed Sisters, 125. 

Tired Teacher, The, 117. 

Transition stages, 91. 

U 

Ugly Duckling, 174. 

Unity of method between teacher 

and text-book, 218. 
Upper Room, The, 162. 
Utterance and the word, 250. 



Verbal series, 223. 
Verbum Supernum, 159. 
Visiting, 28. 
Visualizing, 251. 

Visualizing Power, inequality in 
252. 



336 



TEACHEKS MANUAL OF PEIMAKY METHODS 



Visual memories, 245. 
Vocabulary building, 45, 107. 
Vocabulary, spoken, 43. 
Vocabulary, written, 47. 
Vocations, 138. 

W 

Water lily and the minnow, 140. 
Way to Heaven, 147. 



Welcome to Jesus, A, 207. 
William Tell, 178, 215. 
Word and thought, 47, 241. 
Word consciousness, 221. 
Word families, 234. 
Word method, 226. 
Word selection, 88. 
Written word, functions of, 248. 
Wrong methods, 231. 



AUG 13 1912 



